


Wild Heart

by psuedopoetic



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anxiety, Book 1: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson), Book 2: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson), Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:54:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24745648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psuedopoetic/pseuds/psuedopoetic
Summary: in which thea vasquez finds out she'd been turned to stone for the last three years, and unfortunately, has to join three campers from camp half-blood, the place she had been trying to reach all along
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Set Free

**THE LAST THING THEA REMEMBERED WAS TURNING, SWORD IN HAND, AND BARELY HAVING TIME TO GASP AS SHE SAW THE EYES OF MEDUSA.** She was only ten feet away, eyes narrowed, yet surprised, as if she'd seen something that she couldn't seem to comprehend. Thea had no time to run, she could only let out a half-gasp before she felt herself turn to stone.

It felt like an eternity when her body crashed into a dirt floor below her. It took only three seconds for her mind to start working again, and she scrambled backward, ramming her back into a statue and knocking it over. With wide eyes, she grabbed her sword, getting to her feet in a millisecond flat, blindly swinging it in an arc in her panic.

"Woah--that statue's alive!"

"Yeah, Grover, I can see that!"

Thea looked between the three people standing only a few feet from her, instantly analyzing everything she could about them, down to one of their weak legs. A satyr, with brown fur, a rasta hat, and discarded reed pipes. A blonde girl, a bright orange CHB shirt, dagger, a scratch on her cheek--daughter of Athena, she had the steely grey eyes. A boy, rather scrawny and pale, holding a long sword that he couldn't seem to handle properly--son of Poseidon, there were the sea green eyes she'd studied.

She could take them. The satyr would be easy, though the winged shoes might present some difficulty, and the boy was good, but inexperienced. The girl would be the issue, she held herself with a certain confidence, as if she knew everything she could.

"Who are you?" the daughter of Athena questioned. "How did you do that?"

"I--I don't know." Her eyes narrowed as she held her sword, ready to strike. "You're from Camp Half-Blood, aren't you? You all have their shirt."

"Yeah, Camp Half-Blood," the boy said. "Are you from there?"

"No." Thea felt anger in her chest, she wasn't sure where it came from, but it was almost blinding. "Where's Medusa?"

"Here," the blonde said, holding up a black cloth with something heavy inside, something dripping green liquid. Medusa's head, Thea dully concluded.

"Oh. Good." She wasn't sure quite what to do, but her mind supplied stabbing them. "Hand it over."

"The head?" the boy said. "No way. You're not getting that, I killed her."

"And she turned me to stone," Thea said with a grim smile, pointing her sword tip at the head. "So, hand it over, or I'll take it myself."

"Not happening," the girl said. "It's ours."

"Wait!" the satyr interjected, throwing his hands up desperately. "She's a demigod, too. She might understand if we tell her why we're here."

"We're looking for Zeus' master bolt," the son of Poseidon said, much to the girl's distaste. "We ran across Medusa on accident, and, well, it didn't go too well. Why are you here?"

"I was . . . I was trying to get to Camp Half-Blood," Thea relented. "I didn't make it, as you can tell. Medusa caught me by surprise when I was walking through the woods, before this building was--wait, what year is it?"

"2005."

Thea's eyes widened and her sword dropped slightly. "It's--it's 2005?"

"Yeah," the boy said, seeming uneasy, "how long have you been, uh, stoned?"

"Three years," she sighed, shocked. "It's been three years. Three whole years."

The girl kicked the boy in the ankle, clearly conveying a message, and the satyr pitched in.

"You're going to Camp Half-Blood, right?" the satyr said, nervously eyeing her sword. "We can take you there."

"Grover--"

"We can take you there," 'Grover' said. "Just lower the sword."

"I'm not gonna stab you." Thea sheathed her sword. "I just--this is a lot. I need time to think."

"How did you come back?" the girl asked, dagger still in hand. "Who's your godly parent?"

Thea shrugged. "No clue, he never told my mother. That's why I was going to Camp Half-Blood, to find out who they are."

"You have to come with us."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because one of us managed to wake you up," she said, but it was obvious she wasn't telling the full truth. "That's important. I think it has to do with our quest."

"Why would it?"

"Because we're looking for Zeus' master bolt," she explained. "A weapon that could destroy entire countries. But if it isn't found, it will cause a war between the gods."

"And you think I have something to do with it? I've been . . . _stoned_ for years."

"No, I'm saying your father might. I think they set you free because we were here."

Thea blinked. "Alright, I'll go. But I'm not helping any of you."

The girl nodded. "Okay. My name's Annabeth."

"Thea," she said. "My name's Thea."


	2. Rewards

**THEA WAS STARTING TO REGRET HER CHOICE.** She knew that they had something to do with her no longer being stone, that even if her father had freed her, it was because they arrived. Whether it was because of them or the bolt, she wasn't sure. That wasn't her worry, though. The three of them had been attacked by The Furies--or "Kindly Ones," as they called them--one of which had been Percy's teacher for most of his sixth grade year. They crashed a bus that they were trying to attack them on, fled, managed to find Aunty Em's Garden Emporium, kill Medusa, and free her. All in the span of a few hours.

While she would usually be excited at the idea of fighting monsters, her heart was no longer in it. Even though it had been three years since she turned to stone, the last thing she remembered was fighting her away across the country to get to Camp Half-Blood. She had spent nearly half a year getting there, fighting several monsters a day just to stay alive. She was tired of fighting monsters.

At least she got a few hours of sleep. She didn't sleep easy due to the other three, but it was more than she'd gotten in a long time. Grover took watch, insisting that he didn't need sleep as much as they did, but Thea still woke up before the sun rose. Grover seemed alright, he was skittish around her. Thea wanted to ask what he smelt, if it was strong or weak, or if he knew which god it was, but she didn't. She didn't need to scare him off so soon, not when he knew something.

Grover and Annabeth had went back to Medusa's greenhouse and took everything they could find that was useful--money, drachmas, food, water. Grover offered Thea one skittishly, as if she'd break his fingers when she took it, but she denied it. She had her own food in the army green hiking bag she carried everywhere with her. Nearly everything in it she had collected along her way, aside from a few things she'd taken from her home. Percy had asked where she'd gotten it before they went to sleep, and she'd answered unashamed: she stole it.

Almost everything was stolen. She did have some money--everything left at her house, plus things she took along the way--but it didn't mean she had to use it. She knew once that was gone, there was no more. She had to use it wisely. Plus, she was good at it.

Thea sighed to herself as she continued to eat her granola bar. Her mother said she had ADHD, like all demigods had, a safety net in battle. Thea took her word for it, since she never got diagnosed for it, or her dyslexia. It wasn't her mother's fault, they had to live out far from the "real world." Her mother always said that her father's enemies would jump at the chance to hurt her, which Thea took as the truth, since she always seemed to be the center of monsters' attention.

Percy finally woke up, shared a few words with Annabeth, and started to eat a bag of nacho-flavored tortilla chips she handed him. Before her mother died, and before she had to flee her home, Thea had a strict diet. It kept her in shape, always above the monsters, even if she didn't have a weapon. Still, she was lean and muscular, but the physique from hours upon hours of training was gone. The only training she had now was walking for miles upon miles and fighting whatever monster came forth. Still, even though she wasn't picky with food because of her time on her own, she didn't want to eat Medusa's food. The idea made her feel sick to her stomach.

They clearly hadn't gotten good sleep, they were used to soft beds and the sound of air conditioning rather than cicadas. Annabeth seemed more used to it than Percy, while Grover was more disgusted at the pollution than sleeping outside. Thea didn't mind it much, though she found the pink poodle in Grover's lap slightly unusual. She didn't ask any questions, though, because she was a statue the day before. A tiny pink poodle in a satyr's lap was an average day.

"Look," Annabeth said, "he found a friend."

Percy rubbed his eyes tiredly, blinking as if he thought his eyes were tricking him. Thea huffed out a laugh to herself, a small smirk on her lips. 

"No," Grover hissed at the dog, "he's not."

"Are you . . . talking to that thing?"

Percy said he was new to the whole "demigod thing," that he had only gotten claimed a week or so before, and only knew what he learned in school. Still, Thea at least expected him to know that satyrs could speak to animals. They were _part_ animal.

The poodle growled. "This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west, be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

He ignored Percy's question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, meet Percy."

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," Percy said, "forget it."

"Percy," Annabeth said, "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled. Percy said hello to the poodle. Thea offered a weak two-finger wave, not overly interested in Gladiola or why it was there.

Grover proceeded to explain why the poodle was there, that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they started talking. The poodle had ran away from a local rich family, who posted a $200 reward for his return. The dog didn't want to go back to the family, but he was willing to do it if it meant helping Grover. Thea was mildly tempted to use her money so the poor dog didn't have to go back, but she scrapped it as soon as she realized that there wasn't that much money left.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said, "duh."

"Of course, silly me."

"So we return Gladiola," Annabeth explained in a overly strategic voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," she agreed. She pointed downhill to where train tracks were, ones Thea had noticed the night before. "There's as Amtrak station half a mile away. According to Gladiola, the west-bound train leaves at noon."

"Great, so we buy some tickets," Thea said, startling Percy, who seemed to forget she was there. "Then what?"

Annabeth's eyebrows pinched together. "What do you mean 'then what?'"

"Nothing," Thea sighed. "Let's just get this shit-show over with. Alright?"

"Yeah, let's do this."


	3. Powerless

**THEY HAD BEEN TRAVELLING FOR TWO DAYS, BOTH OF WHICH THEA WASN'T SURE HOW TO FEEL ABOUT.** It was nice to have company, yet at the same time, it irked her. It had been so long since she spent time with people for longer than an hour or two. She found out she wasn't too great at holding a conversation. Or comforting people after nightmares. Or _excepting_ comfort after nightmares.

She had dreams every night, though she guessed they might be nightmares, too. Each time, it was something she hadn't dreamed of before. A man with his back turned to her, frail and hunched over, his spine poking out like a landmine in the darkness. He would never say anything, but somehow, that was terrifying. It was as if horror movie music was playing in her brain, building and building, a great sense of power and evil seeping into her bones, right up until he said two words: "free me." His voice would always wake her up, her eyes wide, still reeling from his voice. It was rough, as if he hadn't had water in ages, unbearably callous, like a car driving over a gravel road.

Thea was glad she wasn't the only one having cryptic nightmares, because Percy softly jolted awake, after mumbling a small 'I won't help you.' She wondered if he had the same dream as her, but she doubted it. Or maybe he had, but she would never ask.

"So," Annabeth said, "who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said 'I won't help you' in your sleep, idiot," Thea said, her ball cap laid over her face. They let out a small gasp. Apparently, they had thought she was sleep like Grover.

Percy huffed, but explained it anyway. He had a dream about a pit--which made both her and Annabeth tense in horror--and a chilling voice inside telling him to help him rise, that they laughed so sinisterly it always woke him, and said they would trade his mother if he did. Thea didn't want to think about what it meant, but she knew.

"That doesn't sound like Hades," Annabeth said, "he always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

Thea nodded in agreement and sat up from her slouched position and sat her cap in her lap. "Yeah. I've had my fair share of dreams with him. He's always on a throne, always."

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else would do that?"

"I guess . . . if he meant 'help me rise from the Underworld,'" Annabeth said. "If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring the masterbolt if he already has it?"

 _Because he doesn't,_ Thea thought sarcastically. _Hades wouldn't steal the masterbolt, that's not important enough._

They were silent, and Grover turned, his hat moving slightly to show the tip of his small horn. Thea tugged it back down. 

"Percy, you can't barter with Hades," Annabeth said. "You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if the Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time--"

"Dude," Thea hissed, " _watch it_. Just because your mom is an Olympian doesn't mean you're untouchable."

The blonde scoffed, and Thea suspected she had a reason to hate the Lord of the Dead. "You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom, Percy."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

"That's easy," she said, "I'd leave him to rot."

Thea's eyes widened.

"You can't be serious?" Percy asked.

Annabeth fixed her eyes on him as if he was a monster she needed to kill. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

 _Ouch_. Thea's mother didn't want a child, especially not with her father, but she grew to love her. She couldn't imagine what she'd do if her mother hated her.

"But how . . ." Percy frowned. "I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital . . ."

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like maybe he'd take some digital photo or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that ever happened to him. When I was five he got married to a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

Thea didn't know how to comfort her. Saying that her mother was all she had up until she died and left her all alone didn't seem like it would be the best choice.

"My mom married a really awful guy," Percy told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

Annabeth kept toying with the college ring on her necklace. Thea guessed it must have been her father's.

"He doesn't care about me," Annabeth said. "His wife--my stepmom--treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened--you know, something with monsters--they would both look at me resentfully, like 'how dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I ran away."

It was silent before Percy asked something. "How old were you?"

"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."

"But . . . you can't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no," she said. "Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."

When Annabeth seemed like she wasn't going to say anything else, Thea spoke. She felt like she had to say something, just so she didn't feel like an intruder. "Every day when I was on my own trying to make it to Camp Half-Blood, I prayed to my father. I'd look at the stars and know he was somewhere up there. I know he's helped me, I couldn't have stayed alive those three years without him."

"Do you know who your dad is?" Annabeth asked. "Did your mom remember?"

"He never told her," Thea said, looking towards her hands. "I'm not saying my father was a bad man, but my mother said she knew from the moment she met him he was godly, and that he was powerful. He didn't love my mother, so he never told her his real name, or who he was. He only said his name was David, and that's all I have."

It wasn't true. But it felt wrong to say it out loud. They didn't need to know that her father was abusive, or that he reminded her mother of a monster. She didn't need them knowing that her mother was scared of the day Thea would finally have to meet him.

"You'll find him," Percy assured her, "almost everyone does at camp."

Thea had been waiting her entire life to find her father. But when it was so close, the idea of finding out who he was terrified her to her very core.

_* * *_

**_THEA JOLTED AWAKE,_** her dream cut short at a voice on the intercom blaring about their stop. They were stopping somewhere, she hadn't quite caught the name, for a three hour layover before departing again for Denver, which was as far as they were going.

Her dream was a memory. It was the night her mother died, and she could see it replaying, unable to stop any of the events. They were sitting peacefully on the couch watching a comedy movie when she was woken up. She was thankful that she didn't get to finish it, she'd spent too many times reliving it.

She stretched, yawned, and rubbed at her eyes tiredly as she got up from her seat. Her sword was tucked underneath her seat, and Thea promptly grabbed it and strapped it to her back. It was an invention from her mother's cousin--a half-blood of Hephaestus--had made for her when she was a child. Her sword would easily slide into the sheath, and with little effort, she could pull it out, and it rarely got in the way. It even fit under her hiking bag, though it made it slightly more difficult to pull out.

"Where are you going?" Thea asked, directed towards the three who were leaving the aisle.

"The Gateway Arch," Annabeth answered. "While you were napping, you missed the whole explanation. Now come on, we don't have much time to waste."

Thea frowned, but nonetheless shouldered her bag on and followed them off of the train. This was stupid, but she had nothing better to do. She might as well look at some boring architecture because some bossy girl told her to.

"Do you bring that bag everywhere?" Grover asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Yeah," she said, thumbing the strap of the bag. "Everything important is in here, everything I need to survive." Her eyes narrowed at the satyr. "Don't get any ideas, goat boy, I could skewer you."

He nodded quickly, as if he was a very nervous bobble head. "O-Of course! I'd never taken anything!"

When they reached the short line to get in, Grover looked slightly less skittish. Thea thought about pulling him aside and threatening an explanation out of him, which she knew would work, but she wouldn't. Not because it wasn't morally right, but because she felt too tired to do it. Being practically dead for three years had sapped the energy out of her.

Annabeth kept rambling on about different things, like the methods they used to build it, or the history of the city. Thea ignored her while Grover and Percy ate a bag of jelly beans they'd bought on the train. For what must have been the sixth time since they arrived, she yawned and stretched, a small, soft disgruntled noise leaving her mouth in the process. Percy and Grover snickered to themselves, but with one quick glare, they stopped.

A cold chill passed through her bones, and instinctively, she went to grab her sword before she realized she couldn't whip it out in front of mortals, that they saw things like spiked baseball bats and shotguns. _Stupid mortals_.

"You smell anything?" Percy asked Grover, seeming to get the same feeling she did.

Grover took his nose out of the jelly bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

"Guys," Percy said, seeming to not buy it, "you know the gods' symbols of power?"

Annabeth looked up from her pamphlet about the construction equipment used to build the arch. "Yeah?"

"Well, Hade--"

Thea gave him a swift kick to the ankle, purposely ignoring his dirty look. "We're in public, idiot. Don't use his name."

"Sure, whatever," he said. "Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"

Thea had seen Annabeth's New York Yankee's cap, one that she said Athena had given to her that turned her invisible. It was cool, but not nearly as powerful as Hades' helm.

"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."

Thea wanted to ask how she had been allowed to Olympus, but Percy beat her with his own question. "He was there?"

"It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus," she answered, "the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true . . ."

"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into any shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, seen, or head. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"

Thea didn't. Well, not just the dark itself. More so what hid within it.

"But then . . . how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?"

With an exchanged look between herself and Grover, Annabeth answered. "We don't."

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Percy said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"

Thea sighed to herself as she rocked on her heels. She felt antsy. Usually, it was because she couldn't stand to wait in lines for even three minutes, but now it was something different. It felt like she reached something important but she just didn't know it yet. But it felt like there was so much more to go, like she was missing a piece of the puzzle. Thea wasn't sure if this meant she was close to finding out who her father was--if somehow Hades and the masterbolt were the answer--or if it was something else. She tried not to dwell on it.

When they finally reached the elevator, she wasn't thrilled. It was small, and they were stuck with a middle-aged woman that took up a third of the elevator, as well as her chihuahua, which Thea guessed had to be some form of emotional support dog. As they started to go up, Thea's stomach churned. She didn't particularly mind heights, the altitude never scared her--it was the feeling that she shouldn't be up there. Like something awful would happen if she stayed up there. Thea never tried her luck in Zeus' domain, so even elevators were off-limits for her.

"No parents?" the woman asked abruptly. She had beady eyes. She reminded Thea of the big cock roaches that hid under rocks.

"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings."

Thea didn't like this woman. She irked her. Something about the way she said 'darlings' didn't sit right with her. It was as if she was mocking their imaginary parents, which was strange, because who mocked random children's parents? She just hoped the woman was only a creep and not a monster. One was more manageable than the other.

The Chihuahua growled, and the woman looked toward it with a certain _look_ that Thea couldn't describe. The dog had beady eyes, too, ones that she had to look away from. "Now now, sonny. Behave."

"Sonny," Percy said, "is that its name?"

"No," the lady said, smiling as if it cleared everything up.

Thea was the first off the elevator, and she had a split-second thought of jumping right back in, but she didn't because the woman was taking nearly a minute to exit. The view didn't bother her, it was rather nice seeing the river. What bothered her was the height. She felt sick, like the way she did when she got a stomach virus, right before she officially got sick.

Whoever her father was, he clearly had a bone to pick with Zeus. She didn't know why, but she wasn't very happy about it. It made things awful.

Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, or how she would have designed a see-through floor. Thea found it interesting, mostly because she had never seen someone so passionate about something in her entire life. It was . . . nice. She wondered what it felt like to like something so much that you could talk about it for hours on end.

A park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes, and while Annabeth looked disappointed, Percy quickly steered them over to the elevator. Thea didn't need to be told twice, she was the first one in.

There wasn't enough room for Percy, there were already five people in the elevator.

"Next car, sir," the park ranger said.

"We'll get out," Annabeth said, moving to step out. "We'll wait with you."

"Nah, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."

When the door started to close, Thea gave him a thumbs up. "Be careful, stupid."

Percy scowled and gave her a rather obscene gesture that made her gasp softly in mock hurt.

"This is going to go terribly," Thea stated confidently. "I am one-hundred percent sure Percy is going to blow this."

"I know you were stone for three years," Annabeth said, "but do you have to have the emotions of one?"

Thea clenched her fist, casting a quick look towards the two other guests in the car. "Look, blondie--"

Grover kicked them both in the ankles, which hurt several times more due to the goat hooves behind the thin rubber tennis shoes. "Stop it. Percy doesn't need you two arguing all the time."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

When the elevator came a stop, they were quick to exit and wait by a trashcan, a few yards from where the elevator stopped. When Percy came down, they'd be the first to see him. To pass the time, Thea counted how many people had stupid looking hats, but when that turned boring because people had too many bad hats, she started to guess who wasn't a mortal out of the crowd, like a wild game of surprise bingo.

"This is taking a while," Annabeth said worriedly. "It's been three minutes already."

"Ooo," Thea mused, "you got a chip in him or something?"

"Listen, this is dangerous!" she whispered angrily. "Do you not understand what kind of danger he's in--what kind we're _all_ in? Already, we've had to fight the Kindly Ones and Medusa. Percy has more of a chance than any of us of drawing out monsters--he could be fighting one up there right now!"

"Maybe," Thea shrugged. "Or maybe he's just admiring the oh-so-excellent tiny windows."

Annabeth went to argue before she smirked to herself. "Wait. You were listening to me, weren't you? You actually listened to what I said."

Thea's face burned as she huffed. "No I didn't! Half of it wasn't even understandable, I couldn't listen if I wanted to. Which I _didn't._ "

"Sure," she said, "sure."

"Oh my god!" someone yelled, their voice shrill. "Someone's going to jump!"

With wide eyes, they all sprinted to look at the Gateway Arch, and unfortunately, it was exactly what Thea expected. They looked up just in time to see Percy--clothes flaming, arms flailing--fall through the air from six hundred feet and land with a huge _splash_ in the river. He disappeared, and Thea cursed loudly, an assortment of colorful language that made several heads turn.

"Someone help them!" a man yelled. "Someone help!"

"Fuck this," Thea huffed. She linked her fingers together, and with a few carefully thought out words, she felt a powerful warmth flow out of her and threw the crowd. Annabeth and Grover shivered, blinking in confusion as the mortals stumbled, looked around, and went back to their average things as if a twelve-year-old hadn't just fallen out of the sky.

"What--what did you do?" Grover asked, eyes wide. "What was that?"

"A spell," she said. " _Duh_."

"How did you do it?" he asked. "I thought you said you didn't know who your father was?"

"I don't." She sighed, still looking at the water where Percy had fell in. "My mother was a grandchild of Hecate, and the magical abilities passed down to me. With the right practice, I can use it, as long as it's not too powerful since the connection is a bit distant. That one was easy, that's why I didn't really have to think about it."

"So they just forgot?" Annabeth asked. "About whatever happened up there, too?"

"Oh, no." Thea cringed. "Shit. Nope, those mortals up there definitely remember what happened. And since we have no idea what happened, I can't erase it from their memories."

"No," Grover groaned, "this is bad, this is so, so bad! Percy's gone, and mortals witnessed something, and--"

"Keep it together, goat boy." She shook his shoulder with a bit more force than necessary. "Percy's probably fine. He's the son of Poseidon, remember? Water's a second home to him, he can hit it from that altitude like it's nothing."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I studied everything there was to know about the godly world since I was an infant," she said, "obviously. How do you think I survived this long?"

"Spite," Annabeth suggested.

"So do we just . . . wait?" Grover asked, looking worriedly toward the water.

"Yep." Thea cracked her knuckles disinterestedly. "I'll be back in five, I gotta use the restroom." She pointed her finger at the two. "If you leave me, I'll tell your counselor guy."

"Chiron," Annabeth corrected, "and Grover would never let me. Unfortunately."

_* * *_

_**WHEN THEA CAME**_ out of the bathroom, she was shocked. Somehow, a giant crowd had gathered, news vans--even emergency vehicles and a police helicopter. It made sense, since Percy had blown a hole in the side of the arch, but Thea hadn't expected them so _soon_. 

She hurried over to Annabeth and Grover, where Percy was walking up to them, perfectly dry. She wasn't completely sure Percy would survive the fall. Only about seventy-percent sure. Distantly, she realized his possible death should have frightened her more, but Thea wasn't unused to death. It didn't frighten her anymore.

"Dickhead," Thea greeted with a smirk, "glad to know you're not dead."

Percy blinked. "Uh, thanks?"

Annabeth stomped up to him, attempting to look angry, but she didn't fool anyone. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

A cop shouted "Gangway!" and Thea flinched, immediately hurrying to the side so they could get by with a woman on a stretcher. Thea hated monsters more than anything in the world, but cops were a close second. They weren't fond of someone who looked like her and was clearly homeless hanging around _anywhere_.

"And then this huge dog," the lady gasped, "this huge, fire-breathing Chihuahua--"

"Okay, ma'am," a paramedic said, "just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." She spotted Percy through the crowd and her eyes went wide. "There he is! That's the boy!"

Thea's eyes widened to the size of small planets and she tugged them further into the crowd. "Let's go," she said, looking around nervously, "it's time to go."

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded, completely ignoring her request as they kept walking. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

Percy cringed. "Well, yeah. The lady--the one with the dog--as soon as you guys left she smiled at me and her tongue was like a _snake's_. With the forked thing and all. She started talking about how her son was going to kill me, and that she's Echidna, and the Chihuahua was her son the Chimera. I tried to fight them off but--but I don't know, I couldn't, so I jumped into the river."

Thea waited a moment, trying to take in everything, which took about all of three seconds. "Okay so what then? Because there's no way you were under there that long just swimming around. Did you have a concussion or something? Meet a mermaid?"

"Kinda." Well, that was unexpected. "There was this woman, she could breathe underwater like me . . . I thought she was my mom, but she wasn't. She said I had to go to Santa Monica. That it was my 'father's will.' She said he believed in me. That my mother's fate wasn't as hopeless as I believed. I don't know, it was weird, but I think she was telling the truth."

"Nereids," Thea said. "She was telling the truth, they would never lie to Poseidon's son." She shook her head when Percy looked at her questioningly. "It's complicated, but basically, your father is very, very important to them. All of them."

They passed through another bulk of people, Thea shouldering through them and stepping on someone's flip flop.

"We've got to get to Santa Monica," Grover said. "You can't ignore summons from your dad!"

Before any of them could respond, they passed by a reporter and Thea's eyes widened at what she heard. "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be travelling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

Thea ducked them behind a news van and slunk into an alley, like the cats she saw in big cities. Her heart seemed to stop racing once they were away from all the commotion and police. She didn't know why police made her so nervous--no, she _did,_ she just hated it. It made her feel small and fragile that she could fight a several-ton hellhound but froze at a cop.

Her mother always said it was normal, but it made Thea feel inferior. And she hated that feeling--the feeling of being _powerless_.

"First things first," Percy said, catching her attention, "we've got to get out of town!"

"Definitely," Thea agreed. "Alright, who's up for some greasy dining hall food back on the train? I think Denver's calling my name."


	4. Olympus TV

**THE NEXT AFTERNOON, JUNE 14, SEVEN DAYS BEFORE THE SOLSTICE, THEA WOKE WITH A JOLT AS THE TRAIN PULLED TO A STOP.** Her neck was stiff and her shoulders had a budding cramp in them, but she ignored it and stood. Her stomach rumbled and she grimaced. There wasn't any food left in her bag, since before she was turned to stone she only needed a few granola bars to get to Camp Half-Blood.

Now, she was regretting not grabbing more in that convenience store.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said as they were exiting the train, "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?" Percy asked. _Gods,_ he knew nothing.

"I'm not talking about phones."

For nearly thirty minutes, they wandered around downtown Denver, Annabeth and Thea both keeping their eyes open for something to make an Iris Message. Thea hadn't done one in nearly a year, and her heart felt like stone when she realized when the last time she did one was. With her mom, talking to their cousin, the one on her mother's mortal side. He was nice, and a demigod of Hephaestus. He would be fourteen now, if he was even alive.

Finally, they found a place, an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They took the stall farthest from the street and Thea watched nervously for cop cars. If one saw them, they would definitely swerve for the four rough-looking children wandering in a car wash with no car. Still, the thought made Thea uneasy and she began to poke her head out every few seconds, just in case.

"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked as Grover grabbed the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," the satyr grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth, Thea?"

"Don't look at me," Annabeth said with a shrug, "the dining car wiped me out."

Thea huffed, and with twisted lips she fished out a quarter from the side pocket of her bag. "You owe me twenty-five cents now, and you're gonna pay me back."

He took the quarter, ignoring the last part. "Thanks," he said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."

"What are you talking about?" Percy pressed again, his eyebrows pinched tightly together in confusion.

Grover put the quarters in and selected 'fine mist.' "I-M'ing."

"Instant messaging?"

"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick mist. "Unless you know how to make an easier rainbow."

Late afternoon light filtered through the water to create a small rainbow that made Thea smile slightly.

Annabeth held out her palm to them. "Drachma, please."

Percy looked to Thea, who shook her head. "Uh-uh, buddy. You have a bunch, you do it."

She had more than him, but that wasn't the point.

Annabeth took the coin and raised it over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering." Thea watched as she threw it into the rainbow, the drachma disappearing in a golden shimmer. "Half-Blood Hill," she requested.

Only two seconds later, it appeared. Thea was taken aback and she had to remind herself to not act weird. It was so _beautiful_. Her mother had said it was unlike anything she could ever imagine, and she was right. She could see strawberry fields in the distance, huge and glistening, and the ocean far behind it. Even a rock wall with lava, and a basketball court, and cabins--it was _incredible_.

They were looking at a porch, not necessarily old, but definitely not new. Someone stood with their back to the I-M, with short sandy hair and a bright orange tank-top, picking at the chipping paint on the railing. He had a sword, long and bronze, that Thea swore she had seen before.

"Luke!" Percy called.

They turned, wide-eyed, before smiling. They were older--at least eighteen, maybe seventeen--with short sandy blond hair and a scar running across their face that crinkled when they smiled. 

"Percy!" he said, still smiling. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

"We're . . . uh, fine . . ." Annabeth stammered. She was trying to straighten her dirty t-shirt and comb the loose hair out of her face--oh, _gross,_ she had a crush on him. "We thought Chiron--I mean--"

"He's down at the cabin's." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover--wait, who's that?"

"That's Thea," Percy said, "we, uh, we kinda picked her up. It's a long story."

"Is she a demigod?"

"Yeah. But she doesn't know who her dad is."

Thea gave a mock salute, and Luke smiled just barely. She didn't blame him, it was weird for them to have picked her up along the way. Still, the way he looked at her made her uneasy.

A big car--the kind that rich people had--pulled up into the next stall, its stereos blasting hip-hop. It was so loud that Thea could feel it in her chest, and she could feel her eyes start to burn at how it was painfully similar to the ground shaking from monsters.

"Chiron had to--what's that noise?" Luke yelled, peering around for the source of it.

"I'll take care of it," Annabeth yelled, seeming relieved to have an excuse to leave. "Grover, Thea, come on!"

"What?" Grover said. "But--"

"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!"

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle of Delphi, but he still followed the two of them into the next stall. The car was nice, a sleek white that looked spotless. Thea didn't understand why it needed to be cleaned, she couldn't see a speck of dirt anywhere on it.

Annabeth marched up to the window, hands on her hips, and knocked sharply. For a few moments, nothing happened, and then the window rolled down to reveal a short man with pale skin. He reminded Thea of a weasel.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice filled with an overwhelming amount of irritation.

"Yeah," Annabeth said--well, almost yelled, "turn down your music!"

"Why?" He looked between the three of them. "What are you kids even doing here anyway? You're not old enough to drive."

She would have been if she didn't get turned to stone.

"You're being an ass," Thea stated, glaring at the man. "Just turn your music down and we'll leave, alright?"

"I don't have to." He looked between them again. "I'm calling the cops, this is harassment."

Thea stepped forward and grabbed the man's wrist so tightly that his phone dropped out of his hand and onto the pavement. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Who the hell are you?" he said, but it came out like a fearful whisper. 

"Not important." Thea grabbed his wrist, several times harder, and stared him directly in the eye. "Now turn the music down, understand?"

He nodded frantically, blindly fumbling for the dial and cranking it down entirely. 

Thea smiled stiffly and released his wrist. "Thank you."

Not even a second later, he peeled out of the stall, nearly running over her foot in the process. She turned to see Grover and Annabeth, wide-eyed, as if she'd just committed arson. 

"Okay," she shrugged, "maybe I could've done it without getting physical. But it worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it did." Grover laughed slightly as they made their way back to the Iris Message. "Has anyone ever told you you're really scary when you're mad?"

"Several, actually."

They laughed for a few moments, but it was quickly cut short when they saw Percy's face. It looked like someone has slapped him with some of the worst news he'd ever heard.

"What happened, Percy?" Annabeth asked. "What did Luke say?"

"Not much," he said, but it was obvious he was lying. "Come on, let's find some dinner."

Thea was hungry--though, she didn't doubt she could last a few days longer--so she didn't need to be told twice. She quickly followed behind them, walking down the street, and she pointed out an 80's style diner, one that she just _knew_ had to have good food.

When they sat down at the booth, all of them on one side with Annabeth moodily on the other, Thea picked at the dirt under her fingernails nervously. There were families all around them, eating and laughing like they were having the best time possible. All she could think about was her mom, and with a jolt, she realized it had only been a year for her since she died.

The waitress came over--a tall, thin mortal woman with blonde hair--and looked at them skeptically as she took out her pen. "Well?"

Percy cringed. "We, um, want to order dinner."

"You kids have money to pay for it?"

Thea's lip twitched at the idea of having to pay for food for all of them, but she went to move to grab a wad of cash out of her bag. Maybe, they could dine and dash if Percy and Grover didn't go all "morals" on her.

She stopped short when the building started to rumble, a motorcycle nearly as tall as her pulling up to the curb. The headlight glared red, flames painted onto the sides, shotgun holsters--oh _shit_.

"Guys," she whispered urgently, "we gotta go. Like, right now."

"What?" Percy said. "Why? Who is that?"

The bell above the door jingled, and Thea felt her chest constrict. It was just like the picture her mother had drawn, down to the smallest details. The oily black crew cut, scarred cheeks, shades that hid what she knew was flaming eye sockets.

Ares. The god of war. And, unfortunately, an old flame of her mother. She wanted to melt into the floor.

The mortals stood, and with a flick of his hand, like they were bugs under his feet, they all sat back down and resumed their conversation as if he hadn't arrived.

The waitress blinked, stunned for a moment, under the effects. "You kids have money to pay for it?"

"It's on me," Ares said, sliding into the booth and squishing Annabeth against the window. His knees knocked against the bottom of the table, nearly touching Thea's. He looked at the waitress, who was still gaping at him. "Are you still there?"

With one point of his index finger, she spun around by the force of his authority, and toward the kitchen.

Thea had to force herself to remain calm. Thankfully, her mother had trained her for this while she did magic, to reign in her emotions to amplify her abilities. Still, the sting of anger welled within her.

Ares gave a wicked grin. "So, you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"

"What's it to you?"

Thea's eyes widened, but Annabeth beat her to it. "Percy, this is--"

Ares raised his hand, and she immediately closed her mouth. "S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"

"You're Clarisse's dad," Percy said. "Ares, god of war."

He grinned and took off his shades, to reveal the flaming sockets that her mother had described almost fondly. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."

"She was asking for it."

"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kid's battles, you know? What I'm here for--I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."

The waitress came back, arms full of food, and sat them on the table. A lump formed in Thea's throat as she sat down a plate of crispy fries and a strawberry milkshake in front of her. Her hunger went away. She didn't know why Ares was doing this--putting her mother's favorite food down in front of her like that. Maybe it was because it became her mother's favorite food on a date with him, or maybe it was just because he was an asshole.

"You can't do that," Percy told him. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."

Wait, Ares had threatened the waitress with a knife? It wasn't surprising, she was only surprised she hadn't noticed.

Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."

"What favor could I do for a god?"

"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little . . . date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."

"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"

The flames in his eye sockets glowed brighter.

"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."

"We're not interested," Percy said. "We've already got a quest."

Thea looked away from Ares as his eyes glowed brighter. "I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful. . ." He licked his lips, like the idea of it was enough to make him hungry. "Well . . . if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."

"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"

"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way,you got me to thank for your little quest."

"Thanks," Percy grumbled.

Did he ever know when to stop talking?

"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west foryou and your friends."

"We're doing fine on our own." 

No, they weren't.

"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell yousomething you need to know. Something about your mom."

"My mom?"

Ares grinned, a grin that reminded Thea of the coyotes by her house. "That got your attention. The water park is over a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."

"What interrupted your date?" Percy asked. "Something scare you off?"

Thea kicked him sharply in the ankle.

Ares bared his teeth, but he looked almost _nervous._ Something deeper was going on here, he wouldn't get nervous about them.

"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving ofrudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."

Then the snarl fell and he looked Thea dead in the eye, with a look she didn't expect to see: sympathy. "I'm sorry about your mom, kid. She deserved better than that." He slid his hunting knife across the table. "You have some mighty battles ahead of you."

Thea blinked, but he was gone, and so was his motorcycle. Numbly, she reached out for the knife and held it in her hand. It was a hunting knife, one that seemed to fit perfectly in her hand. Her mother had told her Ares could be nice--that he cared for her, years ago--but it was still shocking to see it.

"Not good," Grover said, fiddling with his fork like he wanted to eat it. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."

"It's probably some kind of trick. Forget Ares, let's go."

"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."

Percy looked down at his cheeseburger like it had grown two heads. "Why does he need us?"

"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."

She was wrong. Ares _was_ smart, but his rage easily blinded him. 

"But this water park . . . he almost acted scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"

"Who knows," Thea shrugged. "Let's find out."

"Food first," Grover said, grabbing his fork with both hands.

"Definitely," Percy agreed. He looked at Thea once he noticed she was only staring at her food. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just--this was my mother's favorite thing to eat," she said, taking a deep breath to stop the burning in her eyes. "I just didn't expect it is all."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He blinked. "Could Ares be your dad?"

Her eyes widened. "No! Oh, gods, no. He and my mother dated, that's why he gave me this knife, I'm pretty sure, but he's not my father. Even Ares wasn't as bad as him."

Thea stiffened. "Um, what I meant was--"

No one spoke for the rest of the dinner.

_* * *_

**_THE WATER PARK_** wasn't hard to find. It stuck out like a sour, rusted thumb. She assumed, at some point, as was called Waterland, but half of the letters had fallen off and formed 'WAT R A D.'

The main gate was padlocked with barbed wire at the top. Inside there were huge, dirty water slides that led to half-empty pulls of disgustingly green water. Flyers and fraying tickets blew around on the asphalt, creating an eerie scene.

Thea loved it. She hadn't even been to a water park, and even if it was shut down, it was still amazing.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

Thea gasped and hit him on the arm. "Percy! You can't say that!"

"Why? I thought you didn't like Ares."

"I--I don't," she said. "His girlfriend is _Aphrodite,_ the goddess of love and beauty. Insulting her looks is like destroying everything she loves."

"I thought she was married to somebody." He paused for a moment to think. "Hephaestus." 

"And?"

"Oh." Percy blushed slightly. "So how do we get in."

"Well," Thea said, "I can--"

Grover yelled _"maia!"_ and flew over the fence, accidentally somersaulted midair, and landed with a stumble, as if he'd intended to do it. "You guys coming?"

Thea climbed with a bit of difficulty, practiced from climbing several barbed-wire fences in a hurry. Annabeth and Percy had a hard time, slicing their fingers a few times, but they ultimately made it down several minutes later.

After that, they walked around the park, looking at the attractions and seeing if any monsters would arise. None did, and Thea was thrilled. She knew they couldn't ride any of the rides, but just looking at them made her bubble with excitement.

"Have you never been to a water park?" Percy asked as they walked into the souvenir shop.

"Nope," she answered. "I didn't really live in the mortal world. I mean, I _did_ , but I didn't leave my home often. We had acres to ourselves, and my mom would always cast this spell to keep the monsters out. I was happy, I never had a reason to leave."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she said, looking at a frayed blue jean hat. "It was a long time ago, it doesn't matter."

A tear rolled down her cheek, but she covered it up by slipping the hat onto her head.

Percy looked frantically between her and Annabeth as they started to look at the tags of clothes for their sizes. "You can't just--"

"Oh, please," Thea scoffed, "this place is abandoned. No one's gonna miss it. Plus, you look homeless."

Wait, wasn't _she_ homeless?

Thea went to pull off her shirt and Grover let out a yell, covering his eyes with his hands. "Gods, Thea! What are you _doing?_ "

"Changing," she said, "duh. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Not in front of us!"

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "We literally bled on each other, and that's what you're worried about? Seeing my bra?"

" _Thea!_ " he groaned, still not looking from behind his fingers.

"Fine, fine."

She and Annabeth walked into the dressing rooms and changed, and the boys followed suit, soon decked out in Waterland merchandise. Thea kept her slightly torn up jeans and combat boots, along with the thin cotton jacket she'd gotten from a Dollar General in South Carolina. They didn't seem to think about the fact that Waterland shoes wouldn't be the most reliable.

"You look stupid," Thea said as they started to search for the Tunnel of Love. "Like some poor kid who got lost and decided to live here."

"Haha, very funny." He seemed uncomfortable at how quickly it was becoming dark. "So Ares and Aphrodite, they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip," Annabeth said. "Three-thousand-year old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The black-smith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrownoff Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphroditeisn't into brains and talent, you know?"

"She likes bikers."

"Whatever."

"Hephaestus knows?"

"Oh sure," she said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net,and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them.That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like . . ."

She stopped and looked straight ahead. "Like that."

In front of them was an empty pool that Thea imagined would hurt to fall in. It was nearly fifty-two yards across and shaped like a large bowl. 

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from them, a tunnel opened up, where the water flowed into when the poolwas full. The sign above it read, 'THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!'

Grover crept towards the edge. "Guys, look."

At the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted every few inches. In the left seat, glinting in the sunset light, was Ares' shield.

"This is too easy," Percy said. "So do we just walk down there and get it?"

"I don't like this," Thea agreed, ignoring the last part. "My mother met Cupid before and, trust me, if there's a statue of him it isn't a good sign."

"Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

"Nothing like in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"

Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Percy took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound enthusiastic, and it was clear he was trying to make up for what happened in St. Louis. Thea felt bad for him, it wasn't his fault.

"No," he told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting for your backup, in case something goes wrong."

Grover's chest puffed slightly. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me--"

"Are you kidding?" Her cheeks were as red as Ares' plume. 

"What's the problem now?"

"Me, go with you to the . . . the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"

"Who's going to see you?" But his face was red, too. "Fine, I'll do it myself."

When Percy started to slide down the side of the pool, she and Annabeth followed. They could most likely handle it on their own, but Thea wasn't going to let them screw up. Ares would definitely turn Percy into a prairie dog if they didn't come back with the shield.

They reached the boat. The shield was propped up on one seat, and next to it was undoubtedly Aphrodite's scarf. Thea could tell, it seemed to call to her to pick it up, to breathe in the dreamy scents it released.

With a cringe, she noticed the mirrors all around the rim, facing the boat. She almost gagged when she realized what it meant. They could see themselves while they were "getting busy."

Percy picked up the scarf and rubbed it against his face, and Annabeth quickly ripped it away and stuffed it into her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from love magic."

"What?"

"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."

Thea's eyes widened as she saw a thin, near-invisible wire inches from Percy's hand. " _Percy, don't--!_ "

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta." Annabeth's eyes widened. "This is a trap."

"Move, idiots!" she yelled, yanking on their arms to get them running. "Go!"

Noise erupted all around them, millions of gears grinding, and it dawned on her that this was a trap from Hephaestus. Of _course_ it was. How could she be so stupid?

"Guys!" Grover yelled from the rim.

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. With wide eyes, she let go of their hands and with all her might jumped upward toward the top. Her left hand made it to the rim, her arm quickly forming a cramp as she raised her other arm to heave herself upward.

The Cupids fired, gold, silky cables trailing form their arrows, quickly hitting the rim and forming a perfect net. Thea cried out as the cables sliced her fingers, and she fell back toward the bottom of the pool, only a few feet from Annabeth and Percy.

She groaned, gasping as she felt pain crack like a firework in her skull and chest.

"Hurry!" Annabeth yelled, grabbing one arm while Percy grabbed the other. "We have to get out!"

"You can't," she said, wincing as she planted her feet and jerked them forward. "Hephaestus built this, to catch them in the act again. You can't go through the net, it's impossible."

The Cupids' heads popped open and out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up around the pool, momentarily blinding Thea as she shielded her eyes with her hands. A loudspeaker began to boom. "Live to Olympus in one minute . . . Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight . . ."

"No!" Annabeth's eyes were wide and angry. "We're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"

They stood there, frantically looking around to find a way out after Thea persisted that, no, they could not get out through the net. Then the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic spiders pilled out.

Annabeth screamed and Thea whipped out her sword.

"Spiders!" she said. "Sp--sp-- _ahh!_ "

She fell backward in terror and nearly got overwhelmed by the spider robots, but Thea and Percy grabbed her and hauled her toward the boat as fast as they could.

"Be careful," Thea said as she held her sword defensively. "I don't think they're meant to kill, but these are made for gods. And, well, we're not."

That only made Annabeth scream more once they started to swarm the boat and crawl up it.

Thea frantically tried to slice them away, but her sword was much too long, and she had to sheath her sword in a panic. Ares was an asshole, but she didn't doubt his knife would be incredible.

She twirled the knife between her fingers and began doing her best to take as many out as she could alongside Percy, which turned into kicking with both feet and swinging her knife like a madman. At first, it hadn't scared her, but fear was started to quickly build in her chest when she had to flail her legs to get them off.

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.

"We have to get off the boat!" she yelled, letting out panicked screams as the spiders started to shoot strands of metal thread to tie her down. "We're sitting ducks!"

"And what are we supposed to do?" Percy yelled back, just as panicked as her. "There's nowhere to go!"

"I don't know, think!"

They seemed to both get the same idea once they saw the huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come out. "Grover!" he yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"

"But--"

" _Do it!_ " they both screamed, desperate as the spiders began to climb higher.

Grover was in the control booth, slamming the buttons as fast as he could.

"Five, four--"

Grover looked at them hopelessly, raising his hands. The message was clear: he had pressed every button, but nothing was happening.

 _Please,_ Thea thought, _please, father, if you're out there, don't let us get caught. Don't let me die again._

"Two, one, zero!"

Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders so suddenly Thea couldn't help but coil in on herself. Percy fastened Annabeth's seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into the boat, and Thea had to brace herself to stay on. The wave went over the top, whisking away the spiders, but somehow not capsizing them. But that wasn't her worry. The boat was lifting in the flood, spinning in quick, short circles, so fast it made her knuckles white from how hard she had to hold on.

Thankfully, the water was short-circuiting the spiders, and she could see little puffs of smoke and sparks. Unfortunately, the Cupids were rolling live to Olympus.

Thea tried not to focus on that. All she could think was _don't die, don't die, I can't die again_. She nearly cried from relief when the boat rocketed into the tunnel. It was short-lived.

She screamed, the wind whistling in her ears as her hair came free from its tie, then another as her bloody hand slammed into the dashboard. The boat was going fast, and Thea grabbed Percy's arm in a panic when they slammed into a corner, thinking that that would be her final moments once again.

Then they were out of the tunnel, and Thea hurriedly wiped her face on her shoulder, barely aware that she had even been crying. The exit was just ahead, they were so close.

But, she realized that they were nowhere near the end. If the ride was in working order, they would have ridden safely off a ramp, through the Gates of Love, and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But the Gates of Love were chained, with two boats stuck in front of them--one submerged, the other cracked in half.

She could make it, she remembered the flying spell her mother had taught her, she could make it work for a minute or two, at most, but that left the bigger issue: what about Percy and Annabeth? She couldn't carry them, they were too heavy.

Then she saw Grover overhead, by the gates, hovering anxiously in the air.

"Guys!" she shouted. "I have an idea!"

"Well, go!" Percy yelled.

"I can cast a flying spell!" she said. "Only for a minute, maybe two, but long enough to get us over those gates! I just--we need something to give us the velocity to get to Grover!"

"We'll jump for it," Percy said, and Thea almost called him crazy before she realized what he meant. This had happened to her once, the other version. She'd been driving a beat-up pick-up truck when a monster collided into the front of it, and she was thrown through the windshield.

They would have to do that, and hope they didn't die. The odds were much more slim than she would have liked. One wrong move, or one miss-spoken word, and they went splattering into the pavement.

She gripped his arm tighter in anticipation as the gates got closer, while Annabeth held onto his hand tightly. 

"If we die, we die," Thea said, determined. "Shit, that sounded a lot more inspiring in my head."

"Yeah, thanks." Percy looked surprisingly older. Even though he was scared, he had a certain _look_ like he knew exactly what he was doing. "On my mark."

"No!" Annabeth said. "On my mark!"

"What?"

"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle--"

"Fine," he shouted. "On your mark!"

Thea began saying the spell, anxiety curling within her as she hoped she got all the words right and didn't accidentally turn herself into a pig.

"Now!" Annabeth yelled.

_Crack!_

Annabeth was right, her mark gave them the velocity they needed. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much, and as they rocketed into the air, she grabbed Annabeth just-barely around the torso and struggled int the air as she tried to softly lay them down while Grover struggled with Percy. It was hard, she had only flown twice, and once was an accident when she was six, and resulted in a broken leg.

They fell to the ground, and Thea let go of Annabeth as she tried to soften her fall by rolling, but it only softened it by a bit. She had to bite her lip until it bled to keep from crying out at how badly her hand hurt. The adrenaline had stopped most of it, but she could feel it now. Two of her fingers were definitely broken, and the large gash across them wasn't helping.

Thea got to her feet, her hand shaking with pain as she looked back toward the entrance of the ride. The water was subsiding, their boat had been demolished against the gates, and the Cupids were still filming, their spotlights trained on them.

"Show's over!" Percy yelled. "Thank you! Goodnight!"

The Cupids returned back to their original positions, almost sadly. The lights shut off, and the park was quiet and dark again, aside from the trickle of water into the exit pool. Thea bit the inside of her cheek, ashamed that _Olympus_ had seen her cry. Olympus!

Percy hefted his shield onto his arm and turned to them. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."


	5. Lotus Hotel and Casino

**_ARES WAS WAITING_** for them in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew it was a trap," Percy said.

Ares gave him a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled black-smith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV. The flying spiced things up."

Percy shoved Ares' shield at him. "You're a jerk."

The three of them held their breath.

Ares tossed it into the air and slipped it onto his bag once it turned into a bulletproof vest. "See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across from the diner. "That's your ride. Take it straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

There was a sign on the back of it, which Thea had trouble reading, but what she ultimately read as: 'KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.'

Percy blinked. "You're kidding."

Ares snapped his fingers and the back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy. Inside were enough fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos. Thea made a mental note to take some before Grover took all of them, plus the plastic wrapping.

Percy's eyebrows pinched together. "I don't want your lousy--"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Thea said, elbowing Percy in the side. "Your kindness is greatly appreciated, by _all_ of us."

"You owe me one more thing," Percy said as the god got on his motorcycle. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Percy looked like he was going to be sick. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower ofgold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?" 

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else." 

"Nobody's controlling me." 

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid." 

Percy clenched his fist. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Ares' sunglasses started to melt as a hot, dry wind blew Thea's hair into her face. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Nexttime you're in a fight, watch your back."

He revved his Harley, and then he was gone down the street, disappearing like he had never been there.

"Percy," Thea sighed, her nails digging into her palms, "you're an idiot."

"I don't care."

"Ares isn't someone you want as your enemy. Did you forget he's the god of _war?_ "

"Nope."

"Hey, guys," Grover said, "I hate to interrupt, but . . ."

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying, both in identical black overalls, with a logo that matched the one on the truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

Thea wasn't too eager to spend her time with zoo animals, but she'd had worse. She climbed into the back of the truck, closing the door once they were all inside.

The trailer was dark until Thea brought out her flashlight. In a row of filthy cages there was a zebra, a male albino lion, and a species of antelope she couldn't remember the name of. The lion had a sack of turnips, while the zebra and antelope each got a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum while the antelope had a silver birthday balloon ties to one of his horns.

Thea felt more sorry for the lion. It was pacing around in its too small cage, over soiled blankets, with flies buzzing around its eyes as it panted from the humid heat. It was too skinny, its ribs poking through its dirty white fur. She almost reached out to touch it before she remembered it wouldn't be the best idea.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

"Dickheads," Thea agreed.

She almost went outside to give the workers a piece of her mind, and she's sure Grover would have gladly participated, but the truck lurched forward into a drive, and they were forced to sit down on uncomfortable milweed sacks.

"Well," she yawned, taking off her bag to use as a pillow as she sat her sword beside her, "I'm beat. Wake me up if anything important happens."

"It's not even eight o-clock," Annabeth said, and she could just imagine her blinking in confusion.

"Exactly. I've missed out on a _very_ important nap. Spell-casting takes a lot of effort. So, goodnight, blondie."

She could practically hear Annabeth roll her eyes. "Goodnight, Thea."

_* * *_

**_WHEN THEA HAD_** nightmares, she didn't scream. She didn't toss and turn. She got still, her bones pulled tight like wires, and occasionally she'd twitch, or let out a small whimper of pure fear, but that was it. She'd learned her mistake about allowing herself to scream. Somehow, over the months she spent trying to get to Camp Half-Blood, she learned the skill. It was that, or wake up with monsters clawing her.

That was fine with her, it was better that way. But it made for several awkward minutes with them.

"You were, uh . . ."

"Yeah, I know." Thea cracked her neck to the side, earning a wide-eyed look from Grover. "What's up? Why's the truck stopped?"

"We think they're coming to check on the animals," Grover explained as he quickly shook Percy awake.

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

It was easy for her, she could put on her hat and turn invisible. Thea could cast a spell, but it would only last a few minutes, and it would leave her drained. She could only hope that the three of them looked like turnips behind the feed sacks.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured through, instantly frying the cold sweat on Thea's body from her nightmare.

"Man!" one of the workers said as he waved his hand in front of his nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured water from a jug into the animal's dirty bowls.

"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion. Thea watched with a clenched jaw as he splashed the rest of the jug onto the lion. The lion's roar was nearly enough to make her burst forward and break his nose.

Grover tensed beside her. Grover was as scary as a kitten, but at the moment, he looked murderous. She was glad his reed pipes weren't with him.

The worker threw a squashed bag with a Happy Meal in it at the antelope while he smirked at the zebra. "How yadoin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love thisone. They're gonna saw you in half!"

She swore the zebra was looking directly at them, praying for help. Hopefully it could speak to Percy, she wasn't sure if zebras qualified as horses.

There was a loud knock on the side of the trailer, loud enough that it made Thea's muscles tense.

"What do you want, Eddie?" the man yelled.

"Maurice?" someone shouted, who Thea guessed was Eddie. "What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Several more loud, harsh knocks.

"What banging?" he yelled from outside.

Maurice rolled his eyes and walked back outside, cursing loudly at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appeared beside Percy. Of _course,_ it was her doing it. "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, no doubt listening to the animals. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

"Gee," Thea said, "we have an Einstein over here."

Annabeth's eyes went wide. "You _knew?_ "

"Well, duh!" She winced as she hit her hand on a sack. "It isn't exactly legal to transport these animals, there's a whole process to go through, and these guys clearly didn't pass it. I mean, they have the brains of a toddler."

Grover frowned. "You're right. I don't understand how I didn't see it sooner."

Thea wanted to make a jab at him, but before she could, Percy broke the lock off the zebra's cage with Riptide. The zebra walked out and bowed toward him, which she expected, though it was still a bit jarring. 

Grover held up his hands and said something in his native tongue, what Thea assumed was a blessing over the animals. Her mother had told her about those, and how a satyr friend of hers back in the day did them over every animal he came across.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check the noise, the zebra leaped over him and out onto the street. It galloped down, between bright neon signs and casinos.

Quickly, Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen behind shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"We should go," Thea said, quickly strapping her sword and bag on. "Before the cops get back."

"The other animals first," Grover said, and Thea shifted anxiously.

Percy cut the locks with his sword, Grover raised his hands and spoke the same blessing, and they were off. Tourists screamed while most backed up and took pictures, thinking it was an attraction of some sort.

"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all--"

"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"What can't you put a blessing like that on us?" 

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect them," Annabeth reasoned, jutting a thumb over at Percy and Thea.

"Hey!" they protested.

"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

They stumbled out into the desert afternoon. Thea could only imagine they looked terrible, especially her. Her hair had been down, which she never tried to do, so it was the size of the sun with pieces of hay stuck in it from the truck. And, on top of that, her hand was poorly wrapped up with a t-shirt Ares had given her, and she looked like a poor kid's baby doll that they experimented on.

She grimaced as she thought about her old Barbie doll, the one that she'd cut all of the hair off of and drawn little purple hearts and curse words all over. She imagined she looked worse than that.

Annabeth elbowed her in the side to get her attention, and Thea looked up with wide-eyes to see a grand hotel in front of them. The Lotus Hotel and Casino. It looked oddly placed, like someone had smashed it down as if it was a board game, but Thea didn't care. She was enjoying standing there in front of the doors with nice, flower-scented air conditioning blowing on her.

"Hey, kids," the doorman said. "You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

Thea was nervous, she knew that no one in their right mind would let them come inside their nice-looking hotel and sit down, but they walked right in, and with a groan, she followed. She couldn't just let them go alone, they'd get themselves killed. Or worse, another live broadcast to Olympus.

For the first time, Thea wondered if her father had saw the broadcast, if he knew it was her, or if he was proud, but it quickly got cut off once they walked inside.

The entire lobby was a game room. Not like the one she had at her house, with a little old Pac-Man game her mother bought at a garage sale for fifty bucks, but _real_ games. Everything she could possibly think of was there. There was even an indoor waterslide snaking up the glass elevator.

On top of that, _food_. So many kinds of food that Thea had to blink to try to remember the names of them.

"Hey!" a bellhop said. Or, Thea guessed he was one, he wore Lotus Casino merchandise. "Welcome to Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

Percy hesitantly took it. "Um, but . . ."

"No, no," he said with a laugh. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the topfloor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for theshooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in therestaurants and on all the games and rides."

Thea took the card, staring at it like it was a deadly monster.

"How much is on here?" Percy asked.

The bellhop's eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

They took the elevator upstairs, and once the arrived to the room, Thea couldn't help but gasp. She didn't like this, it was very, very weird, but what the hell? There were four rooms, each one stocked with candy, soda, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy white towels with water beds and feather pillows. A giant flat-screen, high-speed internet, satellite TV. The balcony had a hot tub, and the view was _amazing_. 

"Oh goodness," Annabeth said, "this place is . . ."

"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."

Thea left them and declared the room closest to the door her own. There was an entire closet full of clothes, most the fit her, and all ones she'd like. And a _shower_. A large, grand shower that she probably would have cried at if she could. It had been way too long since she took a shower.

She didn't even try to guess how long she was in there. It could have easily been an hour, most likely longer, but she couldn't seem to care. She'd scrubbed her body three times with a loofah, eat time making more blood and dirt go down the drain. They even had shampoo that worked well for her hair, and she should have questioned it, because hotels never had those, but she felt too good to think about it.

Once she got out, she changed into her clothes. She even did her _hair_. It had been so long since she had the time and products to do her hair. That should have been her major red flag, because what hotel had products to use on her hair type? Easy: none. But she was too happy, almost _giddy_.

As soon as that happened, everything faded away. She wasn't worried. She felt happy. She couldn't remember the last time she thought she was happy. Still, she tucked her clothes into her bag and kept it on her shoulders. Somehow, that didn't go away, no matter how happy she was.

When she was done, she practically raided the mini fridge. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had ice cream. Or something that tasted that good. Somehow everything in the Lotus Hotel tasted better.

By the time she left her bedroom they were already gone, the TV rolling a nature documentary on National Geographic. She guessed they went to the lobby, where all the games were, which made sense. Grover and Percy would never pas up the opportunity to play unlimited free games.

The first thing Thea did was ride the water slide six times. She hadn't ever been on one before, and they were a lot more fun than she thought they would be. Then she did bungee jumping, which was _incredible_ , and then she drank some fruity drink that a waiter passed her, which she hoped didn't have any alcohol in it.

Then Thea found what she would call the best game in the history of games. Though, she'd never actually _been_ to an arcade, so she wouldn't know. 

It was a virtual reality game that was so lifelike she almost believed it was real. There was a plastic sword that was somehow _just_ the right weight and length for her, and when she swung it, it moved in the game. It was incredible. She was in the Trojan War, then some Greek battle she didn't recognize, and then an entirely made up one--but it didn't matter. 

Thea didn't know how many battles she won, she only knew that she loved it. She could do this forever. That didn't sound too bad.

When a hand closed around her shoulder, shaking her, she gasped and spun around, VR goggles wrenched off by someone else, to see Percy, choking in surprise as her plastic sword slapped into his throat.

" _Thea!_ " he coughed. "What the hell?"

"I almost had them!" she yelled. "I had the last few people pinned down to the hillside, and you ruined it!"

Grover was trying to make a getaway, his shoes' wings flapping wildly, but Annabeth held onto him tight.

"We have to go," Percy said. "Now. Everything here is wrong, if we stay, we'll stay forever."

"And?" Thea said. "So what? It's nice here, I like it. It's been so long since I've felt safe." Her eyebrows pinched together as she went to draw her real sword. "I'm not leaving. You can't make me."

Annabeth tightened her grip on Grover, even after he kicked her in the shin. "Don't you want to find your dad? If we go, you can find him. But you'll never find him here."

It felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head. "What the-- _shit_. What's going on?"

"There's a kid here," Percy said, "from the seventies. And he doesn't even know it."

Thea's eyes widened. "They trick you in with all the free stuff." She clenched her fist until her nails dug into her palms. "Of course! I'm such an idiot!"

"We have to go," Annabeth said. "Before we can't."

Thea nodded. "You're right, let's--let's go."

At that, they hurried toward the way they came in, Grover struggling significantly less since he heard about the seventies kid, but still talking about some game with rednecks and shooting. She almost asked, but she didn't.

The Lotus bellhop hurried up to them. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

"We're leaving," Percy told him.

"Such a shame," he said, and it sounded like he was genuinely hurt by it. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

Thea almost reached out for one of the cards. She wanted to stay. When she was here she forgot about everything. There wasn't a need to find her father, or the worry of it, or her dead mother that she missed so much it hurt, or the fear of dying so big it seemed to suffocate her--she felt safe here. She hadn't felt safe in so long.

Annabeth pinched her arm and she snapped out of it.

They made their way to the doors, and Thea stumbled, nearly going back as the smell of food became stronger, but she forced herself to go forward until they burst through the front doors. For a moment, she was relieved, relieved that she hadn't been taken prisoner again, but then it was gone as quick as it came.

Because it wasn't thundering when they left, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. But it was still afternoon. Something was very, very wrong.

Percy tugged her forward and they grabbed a newspaper, checking the date. Thank the gods, it was still the same year.

But it was June twentieth. They had been in the Lotus Casino for five days. 

There was only one day left until the summer solstice. 


	6. Trapped

**IT WAS ANNABETH'S IDEA.** Thea had refused to pay, and Annabeth didn't push it. Because Thea had limited money, and she wasn't wasting hundreds on a ride to Los Angeles.

When they got into the taxi the driver gave them one look and it was clear what he was thinking. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."

"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.

He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."

Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card and he looked at it skeptically. "Swipe it," she invited.

He did.

His meter started rattling. The lights flashed wildly. After nearly a minute an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign, something that wasn't even possible.

The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at them wide-eyed. "Where to in Los Angeles . . .uh, Your Highness?"

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up straight. _Gross,_ she liked being called that. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

She probably shouldn't have told him that. He never went below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert. Which was rather annoying, since Thea was doing her best to nap. Realistically, she knew she should stay awake. The three of them would talk, reveal some information they probably forgot because that seemed to be their style, and they wouldn't tell her unless she was awake. Even if she wanted to know, it didn't matter. 

Ever since Thea had been turned to stone, she had been tired. It was as if she was never meant to be woken up from her prison, that the Fates hadn't meant for it to happen, and they were punishing her with a crippling yearning for sleep. Thea wasn't sure why it was happening, but she slept despite it. Even if she had nightmares sleep was the most relaxed she ever felt. There was no worries, no people--just blank.

For once Thea didn't have a nightmare, and when she was shook awake by Annabeth, she felt replenished.

"Let's go," Annabeth said, "we're here."

The sun was already starting to set.

"Alright, alright."

Thea stretched as she got out, and with a groan, she strapped her bag and sword back onto her back. She was used to the weight, but even she knew there was no way it was good for her back.

Santa Monica was _beautiful_. It looked like the movies, and it smelled bad, but Thea couldn't find it in herself to care. Carnival rides lined the Pier, palm trees lined the sidewalks, and people were surfing, waiting for the perfect wave. Thea wanted to jump into the ocean and swim until she couldn't breathe, but she didn't.

They walked down to where the water was and Thea stood right where the tide rolled in, the rubber bottoms of her tennis shoes becoming wet.

"This is awesome," she said. "This is so much better than I imagined.

"Wait," Grover said, "have you never been to the beach before?"

"No." Thea shrugged as she breathed in the salty air. "I didn't really have much time when I was constantly running for my life. I saw some cool scenery, though."

"Thea--"

Percy stepped knee-deep into the water.

"Percy?" Annabeth said. "What are you doing?"

He kept walking, up to his waist, then his chest.

"You know how polluted that water is?" she yelled. "There's all kinds of toxic--"

"I would go after him," Thea said, "but I have a feeling I won't catch him."

"If you've never been to the ocean, do you even know how to swim?" Grover asked.

"Of course I know how to swim!" She frowned as she bent down to touch the water. "Behind my house, there was a lake. It was huge. Ever since I was a baby, my mom taught me how to swim. She called me her little minnow, she always said she'd never saw anyone swim that fast."

Annabeth almost put her hand on her shoulder, but she decided against it. "My dad called me his little bookworm, because even though I had a hard time reading since it was in English, I still read books faster than he did."

"You're lucky," Thea said, "I know your dad's an asshole to you, but you don't know how much longer you have left. Even if you can't fix things with him, try to. So you don't regret it later."

"I--I might."

"You should."

Thea brought her other hand down into the water and bit her lip, stifling a cry. Her hand was wrapped in a bandage, and she knew she had to clean it eventually, but she knew it would hurt awfully when she did. At least one finger was broken, not to mention everything torn. One of her finger nails was completely gone.

"Oh my gods, I forgot about your had," Annabeth said, bending down to look at it. "Is it alright? Do you need ambrosia?"

"I--I'm fine. I try not to use ambrosia, I don't like how it makes me feel."

"Just take some. I know it hurts."

She scowled, but still did so. Ambrosia tasted heavenly, like her mother's amazing macaroni and cheese. It made her chest ache worse than her hand.

"Once Percy gets back and we can find some place to stop for a few minutes, we're re-bandaging your hand."

"Really, Annabeth, it's--"

The blonde merely flicked her hand and Thea yelped in pain. "What the shit, dude!"

"It's going to get infected, and you know it. If we go to the Underworld, we're going to need you."

"Oh, you're going to need me?"

Annabeth scoffed as she crossed her arms. "Ugh, you're such a brat, Thea!"

"Sure, sure." She got to her feet, feeling ten times better, like she could take on a god. "Does anyone know what he's doing? I get he's connected to the sea, but walking in like that is weird. Even for Percy."

"Maybe it's the Nereid?" Grover suggested. "She did say to go to Santa Monica, right?"

"Yeah." Annabeth looked nervously toward the water. "But why, though? I still don't understand. I can't--would his father meet him here?"

Thea shrugged, her eyes slightly wide. "I know a lot about the gods, but I haven't met that many, and I certainly haven't met Percy's father. But, honestly? The gods don't ever see there kids, or speak to them. Maybe it's different, since he's, you know, not supposed to exist."

"You know about the agreement?"

"Duh, my mom was descended from Hecate, remember?" Thea looked down at her injured hand. "She knew the godly world better than some demigods--don't look at me like that, it's a long story. So of course I knew about the agreement."

It wasn't that long of a story. Her mom did work for some of the gods when they called upon her, amounting dozens of favors and high respect, or as much as any god would give. But Thea couldn't bring herself to talk about it. She couldn't bring herself to talk about much of anything.

Percy appeared a few feet from them, entirely dry, with something clutched tightly in his right fist.

"Percy!" Thea said. "What the hell? You could have been eaten by a monster!"

He went to respond before he stopped short and smirked. "Wait, do you actually _care_ if I die? Oh my gods, I think I drowned."

She huffed. "I should have never went with you guys."

"Percy," Annabeth said, "what were you doing down there? What took so long?"

"There was a Nereid," he said, "the one from the river. She said that I had a . . . a great and terrible future ahead of me if i lived that long, told by oracles, I think? And that my dad wouldn't let me die before my time, so she gave me these." He opened his hand to reveal four small, shiny white pearls. "She said whenever we're in need to smash one at our feet. Whatever that means."

Annabeth grimaced. "No gift comes without a price."

"They were free."

"No." She shook her head. "'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying thattranslated pretty well into English. There will be a price. You wait."

"Dang," Thea said, "that sucks. So, are we going to the Underworld or not?"

Grover looked at her warily, like she'd grow a third arm any minute. "Is it just me or does she sound _excited?_ "

"I-I'm not excited!" she protested. "I just haven't been there before! I mean, who doesn't want to go to the Underworld?"

No one wanted to go to the Underworld, it was an awful place.

_* * *_

**_THEY TOOK A_** bus to West Hollywood, of which Thea still refused to pay for. After they got off the bus, the looked in phone books and asked people on the street, but no one recognized DOA Recording Studios, just like she thought they would. It was a front, mortals would see it and forget mere seconds later.

Once it got dark, the others started to get nervous. Thea wasn't nervous--she felt sick, a crippling wave of deja vu hitting her. It felt just like before--before she had been turned to stone by Medusa, before them--when she was on the street. She slept in alleyways, hotels when she felt safe enough, in woods and forests, in stolen cars. But the feeling was the same, the same as she felt right now.

Alone, hungry, and missing her mother more than ever. And wishing her father would give her some sort of sign.

The people they passed were familiar too. She had never met them before, but they were the same characters she found herself surrounded with before. Homeless, drug dealers, muggers, the occasional scrawny teenager looking to score a few bucks off of someone miraculously smaller than them.

As they hurried passed the entrance of an alley, a voice whispered from the darkness, "Hey you."

Thea didn't think twice, she kept walking, made herself more intimidating--but, no, Percy was a no-good-idiot, and he stopped like someone had blown a dog whistle. For a New Yorker, he had zero common sense.

They were surrounded in less than two seconds. Six teenagers, all in expensive white clothing, their faces twisted into the meanest looks they could muster. Thea wanted to wipe that look off their face. They were rich, why did they need to mug people?

Percy instinctively uncapped Riptide, and the kids backed off. They were seeing some sort of weapon they didn't look eager to try to overpower. But their designated leader was either stupidly brave or dim, because he came toward them with a switchblade. Before Thea could move to disarm him, Percy slashed at the kid. And it went right through him.

The teen looked down with wide, shocked eyes. "What the . . ."

Thea was paralyzed for a brief second before she yanked the closest person, which happened to be Grover, and yelled at them to run. Thea kicked at the knees of the two kids standing in their way and raced down the street, Annabeth only a few inches behind her, her blonde hair streaming wildly behind her.

When they turned a sharp corner, Annabeth grabbed her arm, nearly making her fall flat on her face in the process. "There!" she shouted.

Only one store on the block looked open, the light shining through like a mysterious beacon of hope. The sign on the door was jumbled in Thea's brain, and she made out the word 'Crusty,' but she was sure she had to of been mistaken.

"Crusty's Water Bed Palace?" Grover translated, sounding skeptic.

"I don't think we should go in there," Thea said as they started to inch their way over. "I've ran from a lot of scary people on the street, and trust me, almost every time I tried to hide in a store or restaurant it was filled with monsters. Demigods don't have great luck."

"Well, we don't have much of a choice," Annabeth hissed, "do you want to get stabbed with a switchblade?"

"I mean, maybe, switchblade is one of the weapons I _haven't_ been stabbed with yet."

"You're insufferable!"

And with that, Percy yanked her into the store, and they ducked behind a water bed. If Annabeth and Percy pitched in, they could take them, Thea had done it before. But she knew staying here was safe for the time being. Safer than going out there.

The kids ran by the window and Thea let out a breath of relief. "I think we lost them," Grover panted.

"Lost who?"

They all jumped.

Standing behind them was a man that reminded her of a reptile if it could wear a leisure suit. He was easily seven feet tall, no hair, with gray, leathery skin and a cold, unnerving smile. He walked toward them slowly, but Thea got the awful feeling that he could move much faster than that.

"I'm crusty," he said, flashing a smile that showed his yellowed teeth.

"Sorry to barge in," Percy told him. "We're just, um, browsing."

"You mean hiding from those no-good kids," he grumbled. "They hang around every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them. Say, you want to look at a water bed?"

Thea wanted to say _no, you creepy old man_ , but Crusty steered Percy further into the store with one of his giant hands, and she had no choice but to follow. If it wasn't for Crusty, she would have found the place amazing. It had every kind of bed, ones she hadn't even seen before, or ones so large it could fit an entire car on it.

"This is my most popular model." Crusty spread his hands proudly over a bed with black-satin sheets, with built in Lava Lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated, making it look like a lake rippling at night.

"Million-hand massage," Crusty told us. "Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap. I don't care. No businesstoday, anyway.

"Um," Percy said, "I don't think--"

"Million hand massage!" Grover cried as he dove in. "Oh, you guys! This is so cool."

"Hmm," Crusty said as he stroked his leathery chin. "Almost."

"Almost what?" Percy asked.

Suddenly, Thea's spine straightened and she turned to the right, almost robotic, and walked toward a bed in the corner of the store. It seemed colder over there, like the air conditioner only ran on that corner. The bed was small, only twin-size, with a black headboard, carved with intricate designs of what might have been snakes, or vines, or waves. The mattress didn't have sheets, or a comforter, only a waterbed with something black and mirky within it.

It was practically whispering her name. She could almost hear it. _Althea, Althea, Al--_

No one but her mother and monsters called her Althea.

" _Guys!_ " she cried out. "Ru--"

A rope came out of the headboard and wrapped around her wrist with bone-crushing force. She yelped and desperately pulled at it, yanking with all her might as she kicked the mattress to free herself. The others started to scream in protest, and Thea tried to look behind her, but another rope wrapped around her neck and yanked her forward, crushing her back into the bed, forcing her to look at the ceiling as more wrapped around the rest of her body.

"I-I'm stuck!" she yelled. "I'm stuck! Help me!"

She thrashed wildly, the bed rippling dangerously under as she cried out, the rope pulling so hard against her skin that she started to bleed.

"Stop it, girl!" Crusty yelled from across the store. "You'll break it!"

"Let me out!" she screamed, her eyes squeezed shut as she thrashed. "You can't do this to me! Let me out!"

"Shut up, child!"

"Let me out!" she screamed, her voice sounding loud-- _raging_. "I said, _let me out!_ "

The bed burst beneath her, the ropes snapping apart as they vaporized from a liquid that quickly vanished. Crusty toppled back into a bed, looking horrified and angry as he pointed desperately at the bed. "You--you broke it!" he cried. "You broke the bed! That was for a high-paying customer, young lady!"

"Tough shit," she hissed. "No one's killing me again. Especially not some lizard-looking bastard."

Percy was standing there, slightly wide-eyed, Riptide in hand. "Uh, Thea . . .?"

She didn't know what was going on, not really. All she knew was that there was a burning-- _consuming_ \--rage filling her chest, so hot it felt like it would melt right through her. All she could think was _how dare he do that to them_ , and _how dare he try to kill her after she just came back_.

Thea didn't know what came over her. In one quick, clean slash of her sword, Crusty was nothing but dust, and one of his silver chain necklaces hung on the tip of her sword like a trophy. Her lips twisted in dismay, but she let it slip down her sword, into her hand, and put it around her neck. 

"Wow," Percy breathed out. "That was . . ."

"Awesome?"

"Terrifying." He blushed. "But, yeah, it was awesome too."

"Hello!" Annabeth yelled, struggling against the ropes. "Still trapped here!"

"Oh, yeah--right, right." 

Thea and Percy hurried to untie them, slashing the ropes with their swords. Thea tried not to think about what Crusty was tying them down to the bed for--and if it had anything to do with the suspicious "almost."

As they sat, trying to catch their breath, Thea stared at the bed in the corner, the deflated one that had a rip right in the middle. She didn't know what was inside of it, or why it was calling her name, or who the client was. Maybe it was her father. Maybe it was someone else. She wasn't sure which was worse.

"Come on," Percy said.

"Give us a minute," Grover complained, "we were just almost hog tied. to death"

"Goat tied," Thea said absentmindedly, but it lacked her usual sneer.

"Then you're ready for the Underworld," Percy said. "It's only a block from here."

Thea's head snapped up, her grip tightening on her sword. The Underworld was only a block from there. _Finally_.


	7. Fields of Asphodel

**THEY STOOD IN VALENCIA BOULEVARD, LOOKING UP AT THE GOLD LETTERS ETCHED IN BLACK MARBLE: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.** Underneath it, stenciled on the glass doors, was: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.

It was almost midnight, yet the lobby was brightly lit and full of spirits. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking bodyguard with sunglasses and an earpiece. Charon. Thea's stomach twisted as she realized they'd have to, somehow, trick him to get in. There would be no beating Charon, not in his own realm.

Percy turned to them. "Okay. You remember the plan?"

"The plan," Grover gulped. "Yeah, I love the plan."

"What happens if the plan doesn't work?" Annabeth asked.

"Don't think negative."

"Right," she said. "We're entering the Land of the Dead, and I shouldn't think negative."

As Percy took the four pearls out of his pocket, Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Percy. You're right, we'll make it. It'll be fine."

She gave Grover a nudge.

"Oh, right!" he chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem."

Everyone looked to Thea.

"Um, yay. Go team!"

It didn't seem to brighten the mood like she thought it would.

They trudged inside the lobby and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Somehow, as if it would help her appearance, she tied up her hair with a piece of cloth from her bag. It didn't do much, not with the dirt on her face, and the rope burns on her body.

Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. The furniture was black leather, like obsidian, and every seat was taken by a spirit. They were everywhere. Sitting, standing up, looking out the window, waiting in line for the elevator. It made Thea feel trapped, and she just wanted them to _disappear_. 

Charon's desk was a raised podium, so they had to look up at him. It did it's job: it made the person feel inferior, a feeling Thea hated.

He was tall, regal, and his skin was only a shade or two darker than Thea's. His hair was bleach blonde, cut close to his scalp, showing off several scars across his skull. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag where it neatly said _Charon_.

"Your name is Chiron?" Percy asked, bewildered.

Well, shit. 

Charon leaned across the desk, and Thea couldn't see anything but herself in the reflection of his glasses, but she knew she didn't want to see what was behind them. His smile was even worse--cold, yet sweet, like Medusa's right as she turned her to stone.

Thea felt bile rise in her throat at the thought of it, and she wanted to run away and hide.

"What a precious young lad." His accent was British, but it sounded almost lopsided, and it was clear he had only learned anything but Greek in the last thousand years. "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?"

"N-no."

"Sir," Charon added smoothly.

"Sir," Percy said.

He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."

"Charon."

"Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."

"Mr. Charon," Percy said.

"Well done." Charon sat back in his chair. "I hate being confused with that old horse-man. And now, how may I help youlittle dead ones?"

The question caught them off guard, so Annabeth answered, thankfully. "We want to go to the Underworld."

Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."

"It is?" she asked.

"Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon.'" He looked usover. "How did you die, then?"

Thea blurted an answer before she could think. "Stabbed," she said. "Nasty stabbing. They got me first."

It held some truth, she'd been stabbed a _lot_. It wasn't her fault it was the first realistic thing she could think of.

"Grisly death." Charon looked mildly impressed. "I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally,with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill.But with children . . . alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."

"Oh, but we have coins." Percy sat three golden drachmas on the counter, part of the stash they found in Crusty's desk.

"Well, now . . ." Charon licked his lips. "Real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in . . ."

His fingers hovered greedily over the coins.

They were so, so close. If they could just get past him, they'd be into the Underworld, and she could--

Charon's eyes snapped to Percy. "Here now," he said. "You couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"

"No," Percy said. "I'm dead."

Who let him do the talking? Why him?

Charon leaned forward and took a sniff. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."

"We have to get to the Underworld," Percy insisted.

Charon growled, deep in his throat, and the spirits shifted anxiously. Thea's hair stood on end, but she forced a brave look on her face. She was the daughter of Ruby Vasquez, descendant of Hecate, and some other unknown god who couldn't bother to show his face. She could do this.

"Leave while you can," Charon told them. "I'll just take these and forget I saw you."

"No service, no tip." Percy sounded sure of himself, confident.

Charon growled again--a deep, blood-chilling sound. Thea tried to ignore the spirits pounding on the elevator doors, a reminder of the years of torment they'd face with Charon if they didn't pull this off.

"It's a shame too," Percy sighed. "We had more to offer."

Percy took out the entire bag from Crusty's stash. He took out a fist full of drachmas and let them spill through his fingers onto the desk.

Charon's growl turned into something that reminded her of a panther's purr. "Do you think I can be bought, godling?Eh . . . just out of curiosity, how much have you got there?"

"A lot," Percy said. "I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. How would you like to babysit these spirits all day? Always 'Pleasedon't let me be dead' or 'Please let me across for free.' I haven't had a pay raise in three thousand years.Do you imagine suits like this come cheap?"

"You deserve better," Percy agreed. "A little appreciation. Respect. Good pay."

With each word, he stacked another gold drachma on the counter.

Charon looked down at his suit, clearly imagining himself in something better. "I mustsay, lad, you're making some sense now. Just a little."

Percy stacked three more drachmas. "I could mention a pay raise while I'm talking to Hades."

Charon sighed. "The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you three and be off." He scooped up their money, tucked his pants pocket where it managed to disappear without a trace. "Come on."

They pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits and they started grabbing at their clothes, pulling them like the wind, their transparent fingers digging into Thea's clothes. Her heart frantically pounded in her chest as she swatted them away, scratching at them like, somehow, they'd feel it. They seemed to get the message from the manic look in her eye.

Charon escorted them into the elevators, which was already crowded with spirits, each one holding a green boarding pass. He grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on with them and pushed them back into the lobby.

"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room. "And if anyonemoves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years.Understand?"

He shut the doors, put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel, and they started to descend.

"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," Charon said. 

"For how long?" 

"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous." 

"Oh," she said. "That's . . . fair."Charon raised an eyebrow. 

"Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll diesoon enough, where you're going."

Thea's heart clenched. Death was never fair, she knew that the hard way.

"We'll get out alive," Percy insisted.

Charon only laughed mildly, like it only amused him for a mere moment.

Thea suddenly became dizzy, and realized they were no longer going down, but forward. The air was misty, almost like fog, and the spirits were beginning to change shape. Their modern clothes were gone, exchanged for gray hooded robes that drenched the air with their despair.

She couldn't hear anything but the sound of her rapidly-beating heart as the continued forward. The elevator was no longer that, it was a wooden barge, on what she knew had to be the River Styx. It was dark, almost oily, swirling with the things people never achieved.

Thea wanted to throw herself in, to be swallowed by it, to make the awful ache in her chest stop expanding and consuming her. All she could think when she saw an item was _is that my mother's?_ Or _what would hers have been?_ She felt tears brimming on her eyelids, threatening to pull forward, and she didn't know what to do. Crying was stupid--weak, foolish--especially in front of them and Charon. But the weight of where she was, and what might happen, was too much.

When the boat came to a stop, Thea hopped out along with the spirits, and trudged up the well-worn path. She didn't wait for the others, not until they came chasing after her.

"Thea," Annabeth whispered urgently, "you can't just--" She stopped, but hurried to keep pace with her. "Are you crying?"

"No." She wiped her face with her sleeve, so hard that the rope burns flared with pain. "Shut up, blondie. You cried over spiders, which is the dumbest thing in the world."

"You can cry, Thea."

"No I--shut up." Her hands formed into fists, so tightly wound her nails sliced into her palms. "Just--just leave me alone. Talk to me when this ends."

She knew, deep down, their definition of "end" was probably different.

The Underworld was just like Thea had studied. There wasn't much to learn about, she only knew the basics, the things that were essential. Still, the sight of something that reminded her of an airport terminal crossed with a highway was not quite what she expected. It was a bit . . . underwhelming. 

There were three separate entrances under one large black archway that said 'YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS.' Each entrance had a metal detector with security cameras mounted on top.Beyond that were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls, similar to Charon. It made her feel like a criminal-- _inferior_ \--and she hated it.

Thea tensed at the loud, intense howling. Cerebus wasn't far from them, she could tell by the way her skin was starting to have goosebumps. If there was one thing she didn't want it, it was to meet the three-headed dog from hell.

The dead queued up in the three lines, two labeled 'ATTENDANT ON DUTY,' and one labeled 'EZ DEATH.' The EZ DEATH line was moving along, the people nearly walking at regular pace. The other two were at a stand still.

"What do you figure?" Percy asked.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," Annabeth said. "No contest. They don't want to riskjudgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"There's a court for dead people?"

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson,Shakespeare--people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a specialreward--the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they justlived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

Yeah, and they were all racist, but Thea didn't voice that. She had a feeling Annabeth would say something like "well that was how the time was" and she'd punch her in the face.

"And do what?"

"Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas," Grover said. "Forever."

"Harsh."

"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."

Two ghouls had pulled aside a spirit and were frisking him at the security desk.

"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.

"Oh, yeah."

Thea had no idea who that was, she'd been dead for the last three years.

"What're they doing to him?" Percy asked.

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention assoon as they arrive. The Fur--the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

"But if he's a preacher," Percy said, "and he believes in a different hell . . ."

Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they wantto see. You're very stubborn--er, persistent, that way."

They got closer to the gates. The howling was loud enough that Thea could feel the ground shake beneath her feet. She almost made a joke to Percy, that he was so scared he became an earthshaker like his father, but she didn't have it in her.

Fifty feet ahead of them, where the path split into three lanes, stood Cerebus. A large--arguably several ton--Rottweiler. Purebred, no ounce of anything else. The three heads were trainde on the crowd, watching insistently, ribbons of saliva dripping from its jowls.

Percy was stunned. "He's a Rottweiler."

"No," Thea said halfheartedly, "he's a unicorn."

"I'm starting to see him better," Percy said. "Why is that?"

"Wait," Thea whispered, "you guys . . . you guys haven't been able to see him this whole time? Like the entire time you haven't seen a Rottweiler?"

"No," Annabeth said worriedly. "Have you?"

"Maybe."

She tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. "We're seeing it because we're getting closer to being dead. Maybe it's because you already died?"

Thea only shrugged. She couldn't find it in herself to ask any more questions, it took too much energy.

The spirits walking under Cerebus with no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines split on either side of him, while the EZ DEATH spirits walked under his stomach and through his front paws easily.

Cerebus' head craned toward them. He raised his head, sniffed, and growled, a sound that shook Thea's bones.

"It can smell the living," Percy whispered.

"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to them. "Because we have a plan."

"Right," Annabeth whispered weakly, "a plan."

"Your plan fucking sucks," Thea whispered, hand itching to go for her sword. "If I was religious, I think I'd pray."

She was, technically, but she had a feeling her father wouldn't do anything to help her now.

They moved toward the monster.

The middle head barked so loud Thea's brain rattled in her skull.

"Can you understand it?" Percy asked Grover.

"Oh yeah," Grover said. "I can understand it."

"What's it saying?"

"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."

Percy took the bedpost out of his bag, one that he'd broken off of a bedpost from Crusty's. He held it up, waved it, and tried his best to smile. It looked like he'd been shot through the spine.

"Hey, big fella," Percy called. "I bet they don't play with you much."

As Cerebus growled, Thea wondered why she didn't just steal their stuff and make a break for it back at Crusty's. That would have been a better plan than _this_.

"Good boy," Percy said weakly.

He waved the stick again, and Cerebus' middle head followed the movement while the other two heads trained on him and him only.

"Fetch!" Percy threw the stick, and in one solid throw, it landed in the River Styx.

Cerebus glared at him, very unimpressed. It looked like no one was behind those eyes, but deep down, she knew something was. Deeper in all three of his throats, Cerebus began to growl again.

"Um," Grover whispered. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought you'd want to know."

"Yeah?"

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that . . . well . . . he's hungry."

"Wait!" Annabeth said. She rifled through her bag, almost faster than Thea did when a Hydra came after her in South Carolina.

"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"

Annabeth produced a rubber red ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled with 'WATERLAND, DENVER, CO.' Before Thea could point out how awful of a plan it was, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerebus.

"See the ball?" She shouted. "You want the ball, Cerebus? Sit!"

Cerebus looked as stunned as they were. All three of his heads cocked sideways, and Thea could just picture herself getting thrown pitifully into a flaming lake of torture.

"Sit!" Annabeth called again.

But instead, Cerebus licked his lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat, immediately crushing fourteen spirits, that dissipated like the hiss of air when you slashed a tire. It sounded more like when you simultaneously split two instead of one.

"Good boy!" Annabeth said.

She threw Cerebus the ball. He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough to him to chew, but as soon as he did, the other two heads started snapping, attempting to get their own chance with it.

"Drop it," Annabeth ordered.

Cerebus' heads stopped fighting and stared at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a stubborn piece of broccoli. He whimpered, gave Annabeth another stare, and dropped the nearly-bitten in half slimy ball by her feet.

"Good boy." She picked up the ball, seemingly not bothered by the now-wet ball. She turned to them, holding the ball tight in her hand. "Go now. EZ DEATH line--it's faster."

"But--"

"Now."

Wearily, the three of them inched forward, and Cerebus let out a warning growl. He didn't seem to be looking at Thea despite having three heads, and it terrified her.

"Stay!" Annabeth ordered. "If you want the ball, stay!"

He whimpered, but he stayed where he was.

"What about you?" Percy asked as they passed her.

"I know what I'm doing, Percy," she said. "At least, I'm pretty sure . . ."

Thea hoped Annabeth knew what she was doing, she couldn't wait. She couldn't waste any more time.

Annabeth held up the tattered ball, threw it, and Cerebus' left mouth immediately caught it. Quickly, the other heads started to fight each other for the ball, and Annabeth walked briskly underneath it to join them at the metal detector.

"How did you do that?" Percy asked, amazed.

"Obedience school," she said breathlessly."When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman . . ."

"Never mind that," Grover said, tugging at Percy's shirt sleeve. "Come on!"

Thea was milliseconds from bolting through the EZ DEATH when, from all three heads, Cerebus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Thea bit her tongue, a sense of dread in her stomach as she turned around to see Cerebus in the same spot as before, but facing them now, waiting expectantly for his next ball.

"Good boy," Annabeth said, but the confidence was draining from her words.

"Guys," Thea whispered sharply, "we need to run. _Now_."

"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised him faintly. "Would you like that?"

Cerebus whimpered. Thea couldn't find it in herself to care, she only wanted to run through the EZ DEATH line.

"Good dog. I'll come visit you soon. I-I promise." Annabeth turned to them. "Let's go."

Thea pushed through the metal detector, the three of them right behind her, and it immediately started screaming and setting off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"

"We're all fucking magic!" Thea yelled angrily as she shouldered a few spirits out of their way. Everything blurred past her as she grabbed Annabeth's hand, pulling her forward to make her run faster.

She stopped, nearly tripping over her own feet, and pulled Annabeth into the rotten trunk of a thick black tree. Percy and Grover followed, all four of them crowded together in the trunk, Thea holding a hand over her mouth as people sprinted past to stop them from hearing her panting. No one else seemed to take the hint.

"Well, Percy," Grover murmured, "what have we learned today?"

"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"

"No. We've learned that your plans really, really bite!"

Once Thea's breath slowed to a normal pace, she took her hand off her mouth and looked out the minuscule hole in the trunk next to her head. She looked out to see trampled black grass in the dim light, underneath the feet of millions of people, their faces blurry yet still clear.

"We're here," she whispered. "I can't believe it.

"Where?" Percy asked. "What is this place?"

"The Fields of Asphodel." Thea searched the crowd. "It's the place where almost every dead person goes."

The place she might have a chance to see her mother at.


	8. The Pearls

**THE FIELDS OF ASPHODEL WAS GRIMMER THAN THEA HAD PICTURED.** She knew it would be dreary, that it would feel like death itself, and while she had done research on it and heard stories from her mother, it outlived its name. It was as dark as night, minimal light, and Thea felt like at any moment one of the spirits were going to grab her and drag her into the crowd.

The worst part was that it didn't feel as bad as it should. Anxiety curled deep within her, enough to make her feel sick, but despite it all, Thea didn't feel out of place. Death didn't feel foreign to her. She didn't know what was scarier, that it didn't scare her, or that she wasn't scared of the Underworld. It had seemed so daunting before, but now it somehow fell short. Nothing scared her anymore, not with the sinking hole in her chest that the Underworld made her feel.

She searched the crowd desperately, trying to find her mother's face, but it was hard. The spirits shifted, their faces a million expressions at once, all shimmering with a white glow, making them appear paler than they were. Above it all, she couldn't understand them. She'd risk screaming for her mother despite the security spirits looking for them if only she could understand her. Everything the spirits said sounded like nothing, a chatter against the wind.

Thea had heard the stories about people who brought back dead from the Underworld. It was possible. And if, somehow, she managed to do it, and make it back to the land of the living, there was the other problem: Hades, the gods, the Olympians. They wouldn't let it stand. Thea had heard enough from her mother. She knew how powerful they were, but somehow she wasn't scared of them. She would defy them to bring back her mother a thousand times over, only if she knew she could get away with it.

It made her eyes sting and her chest seize up. She knew it was a long shot, but she'd wanted to try--her mom was all she had left. She didn't have anywhere to go, she didn't know anything but her mother.

"Thea," Annabeth hissed, grabbing her by the wrists. "Come on, they'll catch us!"

She nodded, casting another look over her shoulder. "Y-Yeah, I'm coming."

It seemed like it finally dawned on Annabeth, and they trailed only a foot behind the boys, but over the groans of the spirits they couldn't hear a word. "Are you looking for your mom?"

"What--I'm not--"

"Is that why you came with us?" she whispered, her cheeks flushing pink. "What about the Bolt?"

"It's nothing, okay?" Thea strode ahead of her. "It doesn't matter. Let's just--let's just find that damn Bolt and get out of this place. It's giving me the creeps."

The line fed through the fields, all the way to where it forked for judgement. Elysium or eternal punishment. 

"Elysium," she whispered grimly. "What a load of _shit_."

Annabeth looked furious, red in the face, but she didn't argue with her. Not yet, at least.

Thea didn't look at either Elysium or the Fields of Punishment, but Percy was transfixed by Elysium.

They passed through, past the lines, deeper into the fields. The spirits got thinner, the chatter quieted, and Thea began to feel lighter, her body tingling. She tried not to think about how that's what she felt like when she was turned to stone.

Her muscles slowly went from aching to numb, miles between them and where they entered from. She could see the glittering palace ahead of them, and _that_ lived up to her expectations. It was grand, so grand she couldn't even begin to describe it--something about it was so dark and illusive that it drew her in like a moth to a flame. Above it swirled three black, winged creatures--the Furies.

"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover whispered.

Percy put on a brave face. "We'll be okay."

"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested weakly. "Like, Elysium, for instance . . ."

"The only way out is _in,_ " Thea reminded him as she grabbed his arm.

He jerked away, letting out a yelp as his legs shot out in front of him, his sneakers sprouting wings and dragging him away. He landed flat on his back a few feet from them.

"Dammit, Grover," Thea hissed, jaw tight. "We don't have time for this. Stop messing around!"

"But I didn't--"

He yelped again. The wings started flapping madly, pulling him off the ground by his feet and dragging him away as he started to panic.

" _Maia!_ " he yelled, but the magic had no effect. " _Maia,_ already! Nine-one-one! Help!"

Thea made a frantic grab for him but only succeeded in ripping off his sleeve. He kept picking up speed as they went downhill like some awful sled.

"Untie the shoes!" Annabeth yelled.

Grover tried to sit up, but he was going too fast, and the shoes weaved out of his grasp each time he grabbed for them, jerking him wildly in each direction. Thea sprinted after him, the others right behind her, spirits chattering in annoyance as Grover ripped right through their legs.

Thea thought Grover was going to crash directly through the gates of Hades' palace, but he suddenly veered to the right, and the shoes dragging him in the opposite direction. The ground sloped further as Grover picked up speed and with horror she realized they entered a kind of side tunnel.

There wasn't any trees or grass--or even spirits--only a dim light from somewhere above and rock beneath their feet.

"Grover!" Percy yelled. "Hold on to something!"

He yelled something she couldn't make out, but he did try, only to rip his hand away when he split his fingertip open on a rock.

The tunnel got darker until she could barely see ten in front of her, so cold that the hairs on her arms bristled. It smelled _evil_ if that was possible. She was thinking things she didn't even know of, of blood spilling down green hills, of lightning crashing into a monster in the waves, of things that felt ancient and familiar all at the same time.

It all felt familiar, like she knew this place, like she had been there before--but she'd never been to the Underworld before.

She didn't hear what Annabeth and Percy were arguing about, she just continued forward, muscles burning, toward the dark cavern that Grover was careening toward. His left shoe flew off after he rammed into a rock, slipping over his hoof, and she slid to a stop beside him as he grabbed onto the rock desperately.

A hole in her jeans made the skin beneath rip from the gravel, but she paid it no attention as she flung Grover's shoe off, letting it flutter down into the darkness mere feet from them.

Something was calling her. Something powerful, it wanted her.

"Th-Thea," Grover gasped, tired. "Thank you, I almost--"

She stood, almost robotically, her feet carrying herself toward the cavern. She wasn't aware of what she was doing, only that she wanted to, that her mind was filled of ash and dust and blood and she _had_ to go down there.

She had to meet Them.

Right as her foot reached over the edge, something physically _pulling_ her forward and down, a calloused hand grabbed at her jacket, then two of the same, gripping so hard that they pulled her onto her back. She fell, gravel scratching against her cheek, making her fingers blare with pain, and she got to her feet, unsheathing her sword.

"Move, demigod," she said, her voice not sounding like her own. Old, ancient. "This does not--"

She blinked, frightened, and whatever it was shattered and she stared down at her sword, confused. "I--how--"

"I don't know," Percy said, seeming just as freaked out as her. "But we have to go, before--before whatever that was tries again."

Thea hurried behind them, fingers stinging from where she was holding her sword. But it didn't matter, all that mattered was leaving that place and leaving whatever it was that had held her in their fist like a chess piece.

Suddenly wind pulled at their backs, like the pit was inhaling, and it suddenly dawned on her where they were. That made her move faster, ignoring the almost-wail the pit let out once they escaped.

They made it back into the fields and Thea shook her hand, trying to get rid of the pain. Her knee and cheek stung, too, but much, much less.

"What _was_ that?" Grover panted as they collapsed onto the ground, dead tired. "Ones of Hades' pets?"

Annabeth and Thea met each other's eyes and quickly looked away. They didn't seem to know what they had just escaped from, what the magnitude of it was. That was good, they didn't need to.

Percy capped his sword and put it into his pocket and Thea followed suit, sheathing hers on her back. "Let's keep going," he said. He looked at Grover. "Can you walk?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I never liked those shoes, anyway."

"Thea," Annabeth said, letting out a wince. "You're bleeding."

"Oh. Yeah. It's fine."

"Take some ambrosia," she insisted, handing her a Ziploc bag full of it. "It'll help with the pain. Your hand needs to heal, you can't hold your sword well."

"I can hold it just fine," Thea huffed. She took some out of the bag and handed it back to Annabeth, ignoring how they looked uneasy as she ate it, like she might explode somehow. "See? I'm fine. Now let's go--before something else finds us."

They continued walking foward, toward the palace, where the two-story tall bronze gates stood wide open. On them were grisly deaths, etched into the bronze, and she resisted the urge to run her fingers over them, instead walking forward, into the courtyard.

It was Persephone's garden--it had to be--and it was just as amazing as she thought it would be. Kinds of plants that didn't exist anymore coexisted with ones from modern times perfectly, in a way that wasn't natural yet seemed perfectly natural at the same time. Her eyes glittered with awe until she saw the statues.

Children, satyrs, centaurs, all smiling grotesquely. She stumbled, leaning against a tree, bile rising in her throat. She felt sick, she felt like she was going to die again. She couldn't breathe fast enough, all she could see was the snakes right as Thea felt her body turn to stone, right before she was lost in time in an unknown place like her life meant nothing.

"Thea, _Thea_ \--it's okay, they're just statues."

She shook her head tightly, a strand of hair coming down to stick to the others. "But they're _not_. They're--they're just like me. That could've been me, y'all could've walked right past me and you wouldn't have--I could've--"

"You're alive," Annabeth assured her, her voice strangely understanding. "You're alive, remember? You came back to life. You're not one of them."

"I--yeah, yeah. I-I'm fine." She cleared her throat. "Let's go. I wanna get out of this place."

They walked up stone steps, between columns, right into the house of Hades. The floor was polished, Thea's reflection staring back at her. There was no ceiling, only the cavern roof far, far above. Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in various military gear. British redcoats, Ancient Greeks, tattered US uniforms. Their weapons ranged from swords to assault rifles, something that sent a strange jolt through her.

They didn't have any eyes, but she could feel their hollow sockets following them as they walked down the hallway.

When they reached the big set of doors at the end, two U.S. marines grinned down at them, several teeth missing, grenade launchers across their chests.

"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."

Thea blinked. "Shut up, Grover."

"Yep, gonna do that now."

"Well, guys," Percy said. "I suppose we should . . . knock?"

A hot wind blew through the corridor and the doors swung open, the guards stepping aside to let them through.

"I guess that means _entrez-vous_ ," Annabeth said.

Hades throne room was just like Thea had seen in a dream before. Grand yet cold, lacking any sort of emotion aside from loneliness and fury. Hades was different, his skin an albino white instead of a dark brown like before.

"You are brave to come here, son of Poseidon," Hades said, his voice powerful and smooth. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

Percy stepped forward. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."

_Seriously?_

"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."

When Annabeth poked Percy in the back to speak he cleared his throat. "Lord Hades," he said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be . . . bad."

"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.

"Return Zeus' master bolt to me," Percy insisted. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."

Hades' pitch-black eyes glowed like a coal about to burst. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"

What had Percy done? Thea had been watching him like a hawk since she joined them, she hadn't seen him do a thing to Lord Hades.

"Um . . . Uncle. You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"

The throne room shook with a tremor. The doors burst open and skeletons came through, weapons raised. Thea's hand twitched to grab her sword, but she didn't.

"Do you think I _want_ war godling?" Hades bellowed.

"You are the Lord of the Dead," Percy said carefully. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"

"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"

"Well . . ."

"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"

Percy tried to reply, but Hades wasn't finished yet.

"More security ghouls," he huffed. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"

"Charon wants a pay raise," Percy blurted. He paled as soon as he said it.

"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."

"But you took Zeus' master bolt."

"Lies!" It rumbled again as Hades stood from his throne, so tall that Thea had to crane her neck to look at him. "You father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."

"His plan?"

"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"

"But . . ." Her eyes flicked around, trying to solve everything. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"

"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You, the satyr, and _her_ have been helping this hero--coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt--to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"

"No!" Percy said. "Poseidon didn't--I didn't--"

"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest _help,_ " Hades snarled. "I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."

"You didn't try to stop us? But--"

"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson--your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."

The skeletons all took one step forward, their weapons ready.

"You're as bad as Zeus," Percy said. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"

"Of course."

"And the other monsters?"

Hades' lip curled. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you--I wanted you brought to me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom easily?"

" _Easily?_ "

"Return my property!" Hades roared, pale face flushing red.

"But I don't have your helm," Percy insisted. "I came for the master bolt."

"Which you already possess!" he shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could threaten me!"

"But I didn't!"

"Open your pack, then."

He slung it off his shoulder, sat it on the ground, and unzipped it. Thea could hear the hum of electricity without even looking at it.

"Percy," she said, sounding pained. "How could you?"

"I-I didn't--I don't--I don't understand."

"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now . . . my helm. Where is it?"

Percy stood, horrified, for nearly fifteen seconds until he spoke. "Lord Hades, wait. This is all a mistake."

His face twisted with rage. "A _mistake?_ "

The skeletons aimed their weapons. The three Furies flew down and perched on their master's throne, one flicking their whip as their forked tongue hissed tauntingly. 

"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come--I know the _real_ reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for _her_."

A ball of gold burst from Hades' hand and a woman frozen in gold materialized in front of him. She was tan, crinkles around her eyes, curly brown hair torn free from its holder. Her hands were just near her neck, trying to pry something invisible off, eyes wide as she choked.

She was being strangled. Right there was Percy's mother, frozen in her final moments.

Thea couldn't look away. She wondered what her mother looked like in her final moments, if she was clutching her axe or being ripped apart by horrific monsters.

"Yes," Hades said, nearly purring with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."

Why couldn't Hades have taken her mother, instead? She had done everything for the gods--she had done everything they wished of her--and they let her die like she was nothing to them. Like she meant _nothing_ to them.

"Ah, yes, the pearls," Hades suddenly said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you have to leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."

Percy turned back to them, faces grim. "We were tricked," he told them. "Set up."

"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "The voice in the pit--"

"I don't know yet," Percy said. "But I intend to ask."

"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.

"Percy, you can't give him the bolt," Grover said, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I know that."

"Leave me here," he said. "Use the fourth pearl on your mom."

"No!"

"I'm a satyr," he insisted. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."

"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your search for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."

Thea pulled out her sword, shaking her head firmly. " _Bullshit,_ " she said, making all of them turn in surprise. "You all have something to live for--your mom, Pan, your family and the camp. My mom's dead, who knows who my dad is. There's nothing left for me. This is the best option. This is the only way you can get your mom out."

"Thea," Annabeth said, "you can't--"

"I'm not letting Percy lose his mom," she said, eyes stinging. "I can't--he doesn't deserve that. It's not like there's a lot left for me to do. Eternal punishment sounds nice, anyway. Maybe I can meet Columbus and finally punch him in the face."

"Stop it!" Percy yelled. "I know what to do. Take these."

He handed them each a pearl, all except for Thea. She nearly let out a sigh of relief. He'd get to live with his mother, he'd get to see her again.

When he walked up to her, Thea felt herself smiling right up until the moment he turned away. Her eyebrows pinched together and she shook her head, raising her sword. Annabeth and Grover cracked the pearls beneath their feet.

"Dammit, Percy, I said--"

"I know what you said. But there's so much left. You haven't seen camp, you haven't found your dad--my mom wouldn't want me to do this. She wouldn't let me."

He cracked two pearls at their feet and she shook her head furiously, but it was too late, and she could only clutch her sword tightly as the rocketed toward the cavern ceiling. They were going to crash, they were going to crash right into a jagged death--

She screamed, braced herself, and nothing happened. With a wince, she pried her eyes open to see her bubble shooting up through the ocean, toward the surface. They hit the surface, the bubbles popping open, and knocked a surfer off his board in the process.

He paddled away, saying something about bad weed, and he was gone. 

Los Angeles had smoke pluming through it, Hades' earthquake ravaging it. She stared, the fires reflecting off her dark eyes, and wondered why Percy hadn't let her die.

She also wondered if, maybe, she was disappointed that he didn't.


	9. The Helm

**WHEN THEY MADE IT TO THE BEACH, THEA KICKED A SANDCASTLE APART.** They hadn't done anything, Ares had tricked them, and they had to be saved by the damn _coast guard_. She threw the 'I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD!' towel on the ground as if it would make it any better.

Even worse: the saltwater had made her hair a mess, and all she could do was tie it back. And her clothes were soaking wet, which was a feeling Thea had come to loathe after all the times she was caught in the rain.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way--"

"It was a trick," Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena." He looked at the blonde. "You get it, don't you?"

She sighed. "Yeah. I get it."

"But I don't get it," Thea huffed. "Ares--it's not like I've ever met him, but my mother knew him. She knew him a bit too well. And that--that's not something Ares would do. He'd think it was cowardly getting kids to do his dirty work like that, and he would know it'd lead right back to him and--"

"Gods change," Annabeth reminded her. "Maybe he's different now."

He did let her mother die, the woman he apparently loved so much. Maybe he had changed.

"You're right," she agreed. "Everything my mom taught me--it doesn't matter. Everything she did--"

"There he is," Percy said, seething. And there Ares was, down the beach, leaning against his motorcycle. It was no use stopping him, and Thea followed behind the others as they walked toward Ares. The god was wearing his typical attire--leather jacket, sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat with several dents in it--and that stupid smirk that seemed like a snarl from the scar on his lips.

The hunting knife he had given her in the diner was still in her bag.

"Hey, kid," Ares greeted, almost pleasantly. "You were supposed to die."

"You tricked me," Percy said. " _You_ stole the helm and the master bolt."

The god of war grinned. "Well, no. I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power--that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."

The idea seemed to _amuse_ Ares, like his daughter wasn't good enough for that. "Doesn't matter. Point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus' master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at _him_. And Hades is still looking for this . . ."

He pulled a black ski-mask out of his pocket and Thea's eyes widened, her heart leaping into her throat. The helm could take any shape--and it did, forming into an elaborate bronze war helmet once he sat it on his handlebars. Thea's rattled face stared back at her, dirty and cut.

"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.

"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."

"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.

Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like fighting with your relatives, I always say."

"You gave me the backpack back in Denver," Percy stated. "The master bolt was in there the whole time."

"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"

Was he going to kill them? Surely he couldn't get away with that, it'd start a war from both Percy and Annabeth's parents. But wasn't that what Ares wanted, an all-out war between the gods?

"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades . . . Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way--no loss. I still had the weapon."

"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" Percy asked. "Why send it to Hades?"

Ares' jaw twitched, his eyebrows knitting together deeply. His eyes were narrowed, like he was arguing with a voice inside himself, or maybe listening to it. "Why didn't I . . . yeah . . . with that kind of firepower . . ."

He held the trance for one second, two seconds . . .

His face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."

"You're lying," Percy said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"

"Of course it was!" Smoke was drifting from behind his sunglasses, a hissing sound coming from the god.

"You didn't order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."

"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"

Percy hesitated, blinking in surprise. "Who said anything about dreams?"

He covered up his agitation with a smirk. "Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."

Ares snapped his fingers. At his feet, the sand exploded, out charging a boar, and Thea instinctively pulled her sword, crying out as her sword fell into the sand, her injured hand flaring with pain.

"Thea!" Grover grabbed her under the arm as she stumbled forward when she tried to grab your sword. "Don't fight it, you're too tired!"

"I brought myself halfway across the United States with monsters chasing me the entire way," she huffed, leaning onto her sword, the tip deep in the sand. "I can fight a stupid boar, even if I'm--"

She fell forward, a cold sweat breaking out on her, sand sticking to her quickly-paling skin. Grover cursed in panic, dragging her over to a stack of beach chairs--the only cover they had--and tried to pry the sword out of her hand.

"Oh, come on, let go of it!" he yelled. "Let me see your hand, those arrows could have been laced with something!"

"They weren't laced with anything," she said, fighting to keep her eyes open. "If they were, I'd be dead by now, they were meant for gods. But I--I'm so . . . tired, just a little nap--"

"No, no nap!" Grover yelled, poking her in a cut on her cheek. "Wake up! If Percy--if Percy can't fight, we need you."

"Don't touch me, goat boy, I'll--I'll make a--"

As she started to lull to sleep Grover shook her awake. " _Medusa!_ "

Thea sat up groggily, eyes wide, grasping for her sword until the realization set in. "Grover, you ass!" She blinked tiredly. "I--I think the Underworld did something to me. Maybe it was because I was stone for so long, I don't know . . . Wait, where's Percy?"

"Don't look, he's fighting Ares." Thea looked anyway. "Dammit, Thea--"

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled, somewhere a few feet away. "Cops!"

"Oh, shit," Thea whispered, gripping the hilt of her sword tightly. "There's too many cops to take on with just the three of us."

Grover let out a goat-like noise of surprise. " _Take on?_ They're mortals!"

"And they're pointing a gun at Percy and Ares," Thea said, eyes narrowed. Someone yelled on a megaphone for them to put the guns down. "They think they have guns. They'll try to shoot Ares and he'll let it Percy--we need a distraction, something to get them off their backs."

"Thea, you're not killing--"

"No, I'm not killing them, just giving them a little . . . surprise." She whispered under her breath, closing her eyes as she picked up a handful of sand--and the screams followed. Monsters in the form of sand were chasing the cops away, back into the city.

"Oh, great, didn't think that would work." Thea wiped back the cold sweat on her forehead. "I don't want to alarm you, but I'm either going to throw up or pass out--one of those."

"What--Thea!"

Ares let out a bellow of rage from the sea where he was fighting Percy and water sprayed back toward them, slapping Thea square in the face, saltwater filling her open mouth.

She promptly turned and threw up behind the pile of chairs and Grover let out a bleat of complaint. Thea wiped at her mouth, breathing raggedly as she coughed up the saltwater. 

Thea's head spun, her hand aching in sync with her forming headache, and she wanted to crawl into a hole and take a thousand-year nap.

"Is she dead?" she heard Percy say.

"What--no, I'm not _dead,_ " she hissed. She wiped at her mouth one more time before she got to her feet, stumbling greatly. Annabeth grabbed her elbow to steady her and Thea frowned at her, but the blonde didn't stop. "What happened? Where's Ares?"

"He--he's gone, I stabbed him," Percy explained. "He's fine. I think."

"And the helm?"

"I gave it to the Furies."

She decided not to ask about that, because her head was pounding too loudly to hear about it.

"Did you guys feel that . . . whatever it was?" Percy asked.

Everyone nodded, even Thea. She wasn't sure if they were talking about the same thing, but something had made her immediately sick once the two had started fighting.

"Must've been the Furies overhead," Grover suggested.

Thea glanced at Annabeth and Percy, and it was clear none of them believed that. Whatever that was, it was the same thing from the pit of Tartarus, and Thea was too terrified to even say the name in her own head.

"We have to get back to New York," Percy said. "By tonight."

"That's impossible," Annabeth said. "Not unless we--"

"Fly," he agreed.

Thea shook her head. "Woah, woah--that's an _awful_ idea, Percy. It's, like, the first rule of Demigod Life Literacy"--she ignored their odd looks at that--"that you can't fly unless it's important. And you're carrying Zeus' master bolt, the thing that could obliterate all of us. That's your plan?"

"Yeah," he said. "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."

She was going to break Percy Jackson's nose one day.


	10. Family Ties

**THEA HAD VOLUNTEERED TO CAUSE A DISTRACTION AGAIN TO GET THE PRESS TO GO AWAY, BUT NONE OF THEM AGREED.** Apparently, she was "too tired" and they "had to deal with the issue eventually." Which was easy for them, because it was simple. They were spoon-fed a story, that Ares was a kidnapper who had taken them from New York City all the way to LA, and that they just wanted to see their families. 

Thea, however, made up a fake name because technically she didn't exist, and said she was a friend of Percy's, which was . . . definitely a lie, Percy wasn't her friend at all. They had flown, something that terrified her to no end, and split up once they got outside of the airport in New York--Percy to go to Olympus with the master bolt, and them to Camp Half-Blood.

She had gripped the collar of his shirt and said that she'd break his nose, that she was going, but he had made a sarcastic comment that she was worried about him, and she decided he could get smited if that was what he wanted.

It all led up to her, on the porch of what was called the "Big House" in front of Chiron. He looked older than her mother described, but just like Thea had pictured.

"Thea Vasquez, Andraya's daughter," he greeted, his eyes sparkling with something she knew was love. "I feared that you were gone after I sent a satyr to your home. I waited for you to arrive, but when you didn't, I assumed you died."

"Well, I did die. Technically."

He nodded, gesturing for her to sit down. She did. "I heard about that from Luke. You were . . . turned to stone by Medusa, and awoke when they were fighting her?"

"Yes, I--I don't know how. It was strange. I didn't even know any time had passed until they told me."

"It's alright, child, no one expects you to." He sat down into a wheelchair, his legs disappearing within it, and she tried not to focus on whatever that was. "You made it to Camp Half-Blood after all these years, that's all that matters."

She blinked, staring down at the table as her eyes began to burn. She did it. She made it there. She was at Camp Half-Blood, where her mother wanted her to be, where her father might claim her, where her cousin--

"My cousin," she said, abruptly. "Is he here?"

"Your cousin?"

"Charlie--Charles Beckendorf, he said everyone here called him by his last name." She held her injured hand a bit too tightly, allowing the pain to stop her from crying. "Is he still alive?"

"I forgot that was Angela's son, I'll go get him--"

"He's alive?" she said, eyes wide. "Charlie's alive?"

"Of course. He's at the forges, I think it might be best if I get him--"

"Go get him," she said, sharply. "Please."

He left and Thea pulled nervously at the hilt of her sword. Charlie had made it when he was only eleven, so it wasn't the best, but he was proud of it, and Thea had hugged him unbearably tight when he gave it to her. He'd gotten help from his siblings at Camp Half-Blood, and they gave input, helping him along. He had put the same tape that went on baseball bats around the hilt because he remembered Thea always got painful callouses from the metal of her other sword's hilt.

It was fraying, too many battles in such a small amount of time. But it did help, her hands weren't as raw. Charlie was always right.

 _Charlie was always right_.

That's what her mother had always said, because every time Thea and Charlie got into an argument, he was always right. He was a year younger than her, but he was always smarter. "It's because of my dad," he'd always say, and Thea would laugh, because no, it was all him. It always was.

She looked out over Camp Half-Blood, where people were playing in the strawberry fields and lounging care-free, she knew that this was why he loved it so much. It was just like he said--undescribable. 

"Hey, Chiron said you were here for me? I--"

Thea turned her head and his words caught in his throat, eyes wide. Tears immediately filled her eyes. He was so _tall_. Because, of course. He was fifteen, he was older than her. He wasn't that scrawny little kid anymore. It had been three years without her. Three years of her being stone and him growing older.

"T-Thea?"

She stood up, letting her sword clatter to the ground. " _Charlie_."

As if her words broke whatever spell he was under, his arms were around her, hugging her so tight that she almost couldn't breathe. Charlie's little twig arms never did that, not before. He was still warm from the forge, ash still on him, but she couldn't care about that, not when he was there, _real_ , hugging her like his life depended on it.

"How are you--you're so _young_ \--"

"It's a long story," she laughed, tears getting caught in her throat. "There were these kids--Grover and Percy and Annabeth--and they found me and--"

"You were the girl in the stone," he whispered, hugging her even tighter. "Thea, I swear I had no idea, if I did--"

"Charlie, you couldn't have known. I'm just . . . I'm happy you're here now."

"So, you're, what? Still thirteen? Fourteen?"

"Thirteen," she said. "Crazy, I know. I'd be a year older than you if I hadn't gotten trapped by Medusa. Guess it's Big C and Little T now."

He laughed but it came out like a cough from his tears. "Gods, that's weird. I just--I can't believe you're here. We all thought you were dead, _I_ thought you were dead."

"Nah, I escaped death twice. Or a lot more than that, actually. But, hey, enough with the tears, it's making me uncomfortable." He pulled away, rolling his eyes at the typical-Thea comment. "You better show me your siblings, I didn't hear about them for years for you _not_ to show me them."

"Oh, you'll love them. Nyssa was excited to meet you until--"

"Yeah, _that,_ " she said. "Now c'mon, show me this 'Nyssa.'"

_* * *_

_THEA HAD MET_ all of Charlie's siblings. At least the ones on his godly side, she had never met the ones on his mother's side. And it was safe to say Thea felt perfectly at home amongst them--they were overjoyed to see her, happy that Charlie's cousin was alive, and happy to see him at what they said was "the happiest he had ever been."

Thea hadn't seen Annabeth or Grover since she arrived, not since they split apart at the Big House when she said she wanted to ask Chiron about Charlie. Part of her wanted to go, to make sure they were okay, but she couldn't force herself to move off of Charlie's bed, in the cabin where all of his siblings were, where they were talking and laughing--where he was _alive_.

"It's still so crazy," Nyssa said, dark brown eyes glittering with excitement. "Annabeth and Grover are the first people to ever make it back from a quest in years--and, y'know, Percy too--and it's the first time they've ever brought someone back in decades. The last time they did it was, like, 1968."

"Oh. I didn't know that people didn't come back from quests," Thea said. "My mom went on quests a lot, mostly when she was younger, and she always came back . . ."

"Well, it's different here," Jake said. "Who was your mom? I didn't think demigods made it long enough to have kids."

"She wasn't a demigod, her grandmother was Hecate, so she knew about the demigod world since her mom was one." She shrugged. "Her name was Andraya Vasquez."

" _Andraya?_ " Nyssa gasped, lurching forward on her bed. "Oh my gods, Beckendorf! You never told us you were related to Andraya Vasquez!"

"I didn't know she was a big deal, and then it was too late . . ." He smiled apologetically. "I didn't think anyone would believe me."

"Is my mom popular?" Thea hesitantly asked. "I know she was amongst the gods, but--"

"Are you kidding, she's famous!" Nyssa said. "She was a _beast_. But she wasn't really known until--until you know . . ."

"Her death." Thea pulled a knee to her chest. "Yeah, I get it. Did . . . did anyone ever go back to my house? To see if we were alive?"

"People tried," Charlie said, putting a hand comfortingly on her knee. "Chiron sent out two quests, but no one ever returned. He even sent some of his brothers but--I don't know. They said the woods had a 'bad aura' and they wouldn't go near it. We just . . . assumed you were gone. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Bad stuff happened there, anyway, I doubt the place is still standing." 

A part of her shriveled at the thought of her home being nothing but ruins with ivy across it, scorch marks in the gardens. It hadn't been her home for some time, not since she had left it after her mother died--but still, it was awful to imagine what it had become.

"We should get you to the Hermes cabin," Charlie said. "You can sit your stuff down, take a shower--by then it'll be dinner. It'll be fine."

She nodded. "Okay. Sure. That--that sounds okay."

He led her out and she tucked her jacket tighter around herself as they passed other people who stared at her. At the girl from stone. At Charlie Beckendorf's not-dead cousin.

"Do you ever sit that bag down?" he asked humorously. "And where'd you get it from? You didn't have it--well, back then."

"I didn't." She kicked a rock with her boot. "I stole it after a monster ripped mine apart. It holds a lot, and it doubles as a pillow. Kinda stiff, but it works, y'know?" He didn't laugh. "Yeah, the homeless joke doesn't usually make people laugh."

"Yeah, not really funny." He glanced at her. "Thea...what really happened?"

"Someone didn't want us alive," she said, her eyes beginning to burn with tears. She tried to push the image of her mom, ax in hand, as the hellhound grabbed her, but it was impossible. "I don't--it's hard to understand, I can't explain it. But there was so many . . . more than I've ever seen. And with mom's magic--they couldn't have known we were there, someone let them know, Charlie. Someone--someone killed my mom, and they tried to kill me, too. I think--I think I was supposed to die that night, and I think I was supposed to die three years ago, too."

"Thea, you can't say stuff like that--"

"But it's true, _Charlie,_ " she said, her voice cracking. "I can feel it. Something doesn't want me alive. I don't know what it is but it's--it's not happy I didn't die with her."

"So . . . you're saying something out there tried to kill you--twice, actually--and it still wants too?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Well, shit. Guess we got our hands full, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess we do."

Things were wrong, something powerful was angry--but Thea was alive, she was happy, and she had her cousin. That was enough for her.


	11. Cyclops

**SURPRISINGLY, THEA LIKED CAMP HALF-BLOOD.** When she had told Percy that over email, he emailed back not even an hour later, asking if she had "been replaced by a monster who actually liked people." He was right, the Thea he first met was scrappy, constantly angry, and chronically tired.

And she still was, but she was at least happy. She had friends, something she never had before, and she had her cousin. She had somewhere to sleep at night where she didn't have to worry about monsters or her screams from nightmares attracting the monsters. She had people who understood her, or understood her for the most part. It was nice--refreshing, even, after being on her own for so long.

The flipside of that, however, was that she had an entire year to herself. While she discovered new hobbies, she discovered more about herself, things she would have been fine without knowing. She didn't like people touching her shoulder unless she knew them well enough. She didn't like salads because the texture was too weird for her. Her nightmares about the chained man in the dark were getting gradually worse and he was beginning to speak to her.

She had told Annabeth about the last one, and the blonde thought that maybe it was a minor god trying to contact her. They weren't sure. Thea had told Charlie, which only worried him further, and he had no idea either, all he said was to talk to Chiron, which Thea most certainly would not do.

But it was fine, the creepy man from her dreams didn't mean anything, even if he was saying things that didn't make any sense. It was fine, she was fine, it was all fine.

Everything was fine except for the kid wrapped around her leg. His name was Reggie, he was another unclaimed from the Hermes cabin, and he was seven, the youngest camper to arrive since Annabeth. He had nightmares nearly every night, and since he thought Thea was "the coolest demigod ever," he always came to her for comfort. And she did _not_ know how to comfort.

"Do you ever have nightmares? You never scream like everyone else."

She patted Reggie's curly hair as she sat down on Travis' bunk with him. He wouldn't mind, he was at sword practice anyway. "Of course I do, everyone gets them. I'm just . . . not as loud as everyone else."

"Why?"

Why did he have to ask so many questions?

"Because when you're running from monsters, you can't be loud." That wasn't the right thing to say, it only seemed to upset him more. "...Look, Reg, nightmares are just part of us, okay? You grow with them and they grow with you. Eventually, you'll get used to them. They won't even scare you anymore."

"Are yours not scary?"

"Not really, just confusing." She bumped her shoulder with his. "Come on, Reggie, isn't that kid waiting for you?"

"Sam, yeah." He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. "Thanks, Thea."

He hugged her tightly and her eyes went wide with surprise before she hesitantly returned the hug, patting the small boy on the back. When he ran out the door, she let out a sigh of relief. She never wanted to do that again, it was terrifying.

"Dang, who would've thought?"

She startled, falling off of the bunk and grabbing for a sword that was still on her bed. "Dammit, Charlie!"

Her cousin laughed, a deep, cackle-like laugh. "Gods, you should've seen your face. _Priceless_."

"Ha-ha, very funny." She got to her feet, fixing a strand of hair that had come loose while she strapped her sword to her back. "One day, I'll stab you, and it won't be funny then."

"Oh, sure you will." They walked out of the cabin together, toward the forge. "Do you go anywhere without that sword?"

"Nope," she said. "You never know when someone's going to attack."

"We're in a magically bordered camp," he deadpanned.

"The border's _weakening,_ " she corrected. "And even if it wasn't, what if someone else attacked me?"

Luke Castellan, someone Thea briefly met when she moved into the Hermes cabin. He was the Luke she saw in the Iris Message at the car wash, the one that Annabeth talked about. He had tried to kill Percy before he betrayed them all--something that made Thea weary of the camp.

"Loosen up a little, Thea, it's been a year." He glanced at her sword. "And I can make you a better sword, I made that when I was eleven, it's awful."

"And ruin my monster-killing streak? No thanks." She smiled. "Maybe someday, but I like this one. It's reliable. And sharp."

"Hey, what do you think about--"

Screams erupted from the hill and Thea's stomach sank as she saw bronze glinting in the sunlight. It looked like _bulls_.

"Oh shit," she whispered. "Charlie, go get your sword, I'll meet you there."

"You can't--"

"I'll be fine, go!"

She ran as fast as she could, sword in hand, as the older campers ushered the younger ones into the cabins, away from the bulls that were starting to charge down the hill. The Ares cabin would be there soon, they were always quick to jump into battle, but until then--

" _Hey, you ugly fuckin' bulls!_ "

They both turned to her, smoke pluming out of their noses as they exhaled, and she tried not to focus on how they had little to no weaknesses. She couldn't remember what her mother said about them--she couldn't even remember the name--and she wondered if maybe there was a hole in the bronze. Hooves? Stomaches? Eyes? There had to be _something,_ everything had a weakness.

She jumped to the side, the heat of the bull making sweat bead on her forehead. She had to think of something, she couldn't dodge two of them.

"Border patrol, to me!"

 _Oh thank the gods_.

"Thea, you idiot!" Clarisse bellowed as her cabin charged into battle. "What were you thinking?!"

"That the bulls were going to scorch the camp, that's about as far as I got!"

"Well do your magic thing before they kill someone!"

She muttered under her breath, sword tight in her hand, and a nearby tree fell, splintering in the middle as it fell onto one of the bulls. The bull fell onto its side, the tree crushing it as it writhed, trying to kick free. But its skin began to heat up, flames licking across it, and the tree began to smoke.

Clarisse yelled for her patrol to form a wall, and Thea obeyed. She didn't have a shield, but she could stand behind the others. 

The bull that wasn't trying to break free charged, crashing into the shields, fire raging from its mouth. Thea let out a yelp, rolling on the ground as she felt the ends of her hair singe from the flames. 

The rest of the border patrol were running around, their helmets aflame as they tried to gather a plan. Clarisse had already been knocked toward the woodline, leaving one thing for the bull to focus on: the person that had trapped its friend under a tree.

" _Shit_."

She couldn't cast anything else, she used too much energy on the first one, and she had already done ones earlier to clean the cabin before inspection--she was screwed.

Thea stared down the giant ruby eyes in front of her, holding out her sword, aiming for the bull's mouth, the only thing that could possibly damage it. She had to distract it, and it was too fast, so if it focused on her she would most likely be fine--

As she felt the heat from the bull begin to scorch her skin, someone crashed into her, knocking her out of the way. She cried out, her head slamming into the ground, her skin still unbearably warm from the flames.

"What the shit, you ass--Percy?" She blinked, eyes wide. "What are you doing here? Chiron said you weren't coming back because of . . . you know."

"I like your hair." He helped her to her feet, uncapping Riptide in the process. "And--wait, what's going on? How are the bulls in here? And what's the border patrol?"

"Not enough time to explain!" she yelled. "And--thanks! But since there's two of us, we each charge one bull before the other gets up. We can tag-team it and try to slice its head off, it's the only thing that'll do any damage."

"Okay, let's do it."

They charged together, toward the bull, but Percy's foot caught on a root and he went sprawling. Thea cursed, diving out of the way of the bull, only managing to slice off its snout while Percy got a hoof. The bull stumbled, off-balance on one foot, panicked as its head whipped around, incinerating any blade of grass near it.

"Shit, move!"

Thea grabbed Percy by the collar of his shirt, yanking him off the ground as they sprinted away from the bull. The other one was getting to its feet, throwing the tree trunk off of itself. Its ruby eyes glinted with rage.

She helped Percy stand on his wobbly ankle as a young cyclops ran toward a bull--a _cyclops?_

Thea could only watch with wide eyes as Percy cried out for it--"Tyson," apparently--only to relax slightly once he saw the flames did nothing to him. Of course, cyclops were immune to fire.

"Can you stay here?" Thea asked. "Just--don't do anything stupid while I help Clarisse."

"I'm _fine_."

She didn't believe a word he said, because his ankle was the size of her fist, but she sprinted off anyway, skidding to a stop beside Clarisse. Clarisse's side was singed, smelling distinctly like burnt flesh, and it made Thea's stomach twist.

It was the bull without a snout or hoof, but it was blasting fire in every direction to compensate, preventing them from getting any closer. 

"You distract it, I'll go in," Clarisse said.

"K."

Thea yelled a slew of colorful insults as Clarisse ran in an arc around it, out of its eyeline. The bull turned to the Vasquez girl, ruby eyes narrowed as it wobbled. Thea made a quick prayer to Charlie's dad that he wouldn't let the fire kill her.

As a column of flames reached toward her, she dove to the side, flames flicking across her as she rolled, drowning out the flames in the scorched grass. When she got to her feet, panic still high in her chest, the bull was on the ground, a spear in its chest.

"You should've waited for the rest of border patrol," Clarisse huffed as she walked past. 

"Yeah, whatever." She shoved a bag of ambrosia into her hands. "Take this, you smell awful."

Thea jogged over toward Percy where Annabeth was nealing beside him giving him Nectar. "Okay, you two better explain this shit. First, how are you two here, you live in San Francisco--and two, _why in the hell_ is there a cyclops over there?"

As if he heard himself being talked about, the cyclops bounded over, a goofy grin on his face. Thea was uncomfortable at the proximity, a nasty memory appearing in her head of when a cyclops had cornered her in New Jersey.

"I am sorry," he said. "Came to help. Disobeyed you."

"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."

"Let him cross the boundary line?" Percy asked. "But--"

"Percy," Annabeth said, "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean . . . in the face. Ignore the Mist and really look at him."

Percy did, and it took a few seconds, but his eyes widened in shock. "Tyson, you're a . . ."

"Cyclops," Annabeth offered. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easy as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."

Thea always felt a little sorry for the cyclopses, she knew what it was like to not have a home. But they had also tried to eat her, and her sympathy was lessened since then.

"One of the what?"

"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're . . . mistakes, Percy. Children of nature spirits and gods . . . Well, one god in particular, usually . . . and they don't always come out right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."

"But the fire. How--"

"He's a cyclops." Annabeth paused and it was clear she, too, had had unpleasant experiences with them. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."

Thea looked at the hill, where it was aflame and injured campers were stumbling. "C'mon, we have to get the injured to the Big House and let Tantalus know what happened."

"Tantalus?" Percy asked.

She winced. Did he really not know anything that happened? "Uh, Percy, Chiron and Argus got fired. They think Chiron poisoned the tree. And Mr. D hates Argus, so this is his excuse to get rid of him."

Her tone was sour at the last part. She loved Argus, he was nice, and he played cards with her. He was one of the few people in camp that _actually_ liked spending time with Thea. And now he was going to leave.

"...Poisoned?" Percy looked at Thalia's tree, and it was clear he understood. "There's--there's no way . . ."

"Yeah, you've missed a lot, dumbass. It's time for you to catch up."


	12. Tyson Gets Claimed

**THEA HAD ONLY BEEN AT CAMP HALF-BLOOD FOR A YEAR, AND EVEN THEN, SHE WASN'T AGAINST THINGS CHANGING LIKE EVERYONE ELSE WAS.** She had spent months on the run with everything always changing. For her, Camp Half-Blood was paradise, even if they had to fight off a monster or two every day. No one else seemed to think that.

Charlie had spent the entire year aside from breaks there since the year before, and he was very against the change. He hated it, he hated that Chiron was leaving. It had caused quite a few arguments between them and they both knew no longer to bring up the topic around each other. Their tempers didn't blend well together when they were angry.

But with Annabeth and Percy back earlier than expected, Thea wanted to spend time with them. She wouldn't say they were friends--that was ridiculous--but she did email them as often as she could with the camp's computer, and she did call Annabeth sometimes since they both had phones . . . Maybe they _were_ friends, but she wouldn't say that out loud. Grover had teased her relentlessly about it--

Her eyebrows pinched together at the thought of Grover. He had been gone for months. And, realistically, she knew that was supposed to happen. But Grover always let someone know he was okay and he hadn't. Not in weeks. And, as much as she hated to admit it, Grover definitely was her friend. He was hopelessly nice and didn't care that Thea was dangerously rough around the edges.

She just wanted to know if Grover was okay.

"Whasthat!" Tyson gasped.

"The stables for the pegasi," Percy said. "The winged horses."

"Whasthat!"

"Um . . . those are the toilets."

"Whasthat!"

"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin--that brown one over there--until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."

Tyson looked at him in awe. "You . . . have a cabin?"

Percy pointed at his cabin. "Number three."

"You live with friends in the cabin?"

"No. No, just me."

Thea stopped them as they passed the Hermes cabin. "Can you guys wait a sec? My shirt's . . . kinda scorched."

Percy's cheeks turned pink once he noticed she was right. Her shirt was burned open, from the sleeve down to the bottom of her ribcage. "Y-Yeah, we'll wait here."

She hurried inside, digging through her bag until she found a shirt. No one was inside since the chaos of the bulls, but she wasn't sure she would mind even if people were in there. When she was done, she met them back outside the cabin, sporting a fresh orange tee.

"Hey, have you guys heard from Grover?" Thea asked once they got close to the Big House.

"No. Have you?" Percy looked at her, like he was waiting for her to reveal something. "Did you get a dream, too?"

"Dream? What? No, I just haven't heard from him in almost two months, and he never forgets to call. It's--what dream did you get?"

"I--"

Annabeth was already hurrying toward Chiron's apartment, meaning the conversation was over.

"Pony!" Tyson cried, utterly fascinated.

Chiron's head jerked. "I beg your pardon?"

Annabeth ran up and hugged the centaur. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not . . . leaving?"

The shakiness in Annabeth's voice was scary. Thea didn't like it when people got upset, it made her uncomfortable, and if Annabeth started crying it would be worse.

"Hello, child," he greeted, his eyes twinkling with something that was unmistakably _love_. "And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"

Percy rubbed at his wrist. "Thea said you were . . . you were . . ."

"Fired." The love was gone, twinkling with some sort of dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

"Besides himself, you mean," Percy grumbled.

"But this is crazy!" Annabeth cried. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"

Chiron sighed. "Nevertheless, some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."

"Circumstances?" Percy asked.

Tyson was still staring at him. "Pony?"

Chiron sniffed. "My dear young cyclops! I am a centaur."

"Chiron," Percy said. "What about the tree? What happened?"

"The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."

"Then we know who's responsible. Kro--"

"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, Percy. Especially not here, not now."

"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, that traitor."

Thea had barely known Luke, but in the time she did, she didn't trust him. She recognized him from somewhere, something that made her stomach churn. 

"Perhaps," Chiron said. "But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and I cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life left unless . . ."

"Unless what?" Annabeth asked.

"No," Chiron said. "A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."

"What is it?" Percy asked. "We'll go find it!"

Chiron rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Percy, you must promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."

"Why?" he asked. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be--"

"Overrun by monsters," Chiron finished. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer! He almost took your life."

Thea's eyes were beginning to burn. "The camp . . . it's going to be overrun, isn't it? And there's nothing we can do?" She wiped at her eyes furiously. "I knew this was too good to be true."

Chiron's eyes softened as he made his way over to her. He rested a hand on her shoulder and she leaned into it slightly, overwhelmed by the love the man seemed to feel for her. "It will be okay, child. You are strong. If it does happen, I know you will survive. You're a Vasquez."

She bit her lip and nodded. If she tried to say anything, she feared she would start sobbing. Because it was going to happen again. Just like her home, it was going to be overrun, everyone would die, she'd be on her own--

"Stay with Percy, child," Chiron said, patting Annabeth's shoulder. "Keep him safe. The prophecy--remember it!"

"I--I will."

"Um," Percy said. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"

Nobody answered. Thea only knew bits and pieces of it, her mother didn't want to tell her too much out of fear that the prophecy might be about her. Still, it wasn't comforting to know it might be about Percy. Prophecies never ended well.

"Chiron . . ." Annabeth wiped at her eyes. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp--"

"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insisted. "Swear upon the River Styx."

"I--I swear it upon the River Styx."

Thunder rumbled outside.

Thea shook her head. "Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"Very well," Chiron said. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved . . . one way or another."

Annabeth stifled a sob and Chiron patted her shoulder. "There now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope . . . well, perhaps they won't destroy the camp quite as quickly as I fear."

"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" Percy demanded. "Where does he get off taking your job?"

The conch horn blew for dinner. Thea wasn't hungry.

"Go," Chiron said. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"

He clopped out of the apartment and down the hall and Thea could only blink back the burning in her eyes as Annabeth and Tyson began to cry. Percy was consoling Tyson, and, dammit, that meant she had to console Annabeth, didn't it?

"It'll--it'll be okay," Thea said, awkwardly patting the blonde's back.

"But you don't know that!" she cried.

"Probably not, but you've survived this kinda thing before," she said. "So have I. We'll be fine. You're--you're badass, Annabeth. You went up against Cerebus when even I was terrified. You'll be okay."

The blonde sniffled, wiping at her nose. "You've never done this before, have you?"

"Definitely not." She smiled weakly. "Now c'mon, it's dinner time. Malcolm's been missing you, he wouldn't stop asking me where you were."

_* * *_

**_THEA SAT AT_** the Hermes' table. For the first few days she was at camp, she sat with Charlie at his table, but after that she sat with the Hermes cabin. It was always overcrowded, and you always had to shove your way in to get a seat or you'd be on the ground, but it was nice. Something about the rough-and-tough of it was comforting because there was never malice behind it, only lighthearted roughhousing. 

Like always, Thea shoved her way in to sit at the table. She got a seat beside Connor, like she almost always managed to do, wedged between him and his half-brother Cecil, a scrawny blond-haired boy with a hooked nose.

"Hey, what's with the . . . _it?_ "

"Hey, don't call them an it," Thea said, but it lacked a punch. "That's Tyson. Percy's friend from school, I think? I don't know, he's one of the homeless from the city. Apparently, Percy didn't know he was a cyclops until we told him."

"Wait, _seriously?_ " Connor nearly choked on his food as he laughed. "How did he not notice? The guy's, like, six foot. And can bend metal with his bare hands."

"Who knows, it's Percy after all." She glanced over where Percy was sitting by himself while Tyson stood by Mr. D and Tantalus. "He's a cyclops but . . . I feel kinda bad for him, y'know?"

Connor actually choked on his food and someone slapped his back to help him. "S-Seriously, dude? He's a _cyclops_. They kill us for fun--no, for sport."

"I know, I know, I just . . . he's different. He's--he's nice, as weird as that sounds. I guess I've never met one so young."

"Well, just wait until he gets older. He'll eat you."

"Yeah, probably."

When it was time for offerings, Thea gave part of her pizza to Charlie's father. She didn't know why she did it anymore, maybe out of spite against her own father who wouldn't claim her, but every time, the smell of the forges was there. It seemed like he wasn't opposed to her offerings, even if she wasn't his own daughter.

Once the rest of the Hermes cabin sat back down, the last to do their offerings, Tantalus got a satyr to blow a conch horn to announce that it was time for him to speak. Thea would rather skewer herself, she hated the man.

"Yes, well," he said once the talking began to die down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." He inched his hand toward a plate of food, but the food slid down the table, avoiding his boney grasp. Thea had to pinch Connor to stop laughing as she held back her own.

"And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough."

Tyson tried to scoot away from the man again, but he pulled him back. Thea didn't like Tyson, but she certainly didn't like the way that Tantalus was grabbing him.

"And now some changes!" he announced. "We are reinstituting chariot races!"

Thea's eyes widened. When her mother was at camp, they had them, and that was always what Thea looked forward to.

"Now I know that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations!" Will from Apollo cabin announced.

"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days' time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

No chores? Thea was sold. The Hermes cabin always got more than everyone else due to their large numbers, but half of the people refused to help, and it almost always got pushed onto her and the Stolls. 

"But, sir!" Clarisse objected. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots--"

"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus grinned. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls."

Seriously? Tyson finished one, and then both Clarisse and Thea.

"Um, I didn't--"

"And modest too." Tantalus grinned again, showing off his yellow teeth. "Not to worry, my dear! We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But the tree--"

Several of Clarisse's cabin mates dragged her back to her seat, not caring for what she was saying. But Thea did, because she was _right_. If everyone was distracted, the camp would fall. Why did no one care? Because--because most of them had places to go if they needed to, didn't they? For them, the camp was nothing more than a second home. They didn't need it like Thea did.

"And now, before we proceed to the campfire and the singalong, one light housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." He waved his hand at Tyson, who looked uncomfortable, not fully understanding what the man meant.

"Now, of course," he said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"

No one answered. Thea didn't, either. They couldn't handle a six-three cyclops in the cabin, it was impossible. They could barely handle another camper.

"Come now," Tantalus chided. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"

Thea was about to look at Charlie, to somehow convince him to take him, since Tyson might like the forges and be useful, and then--

A green trident lit up above Tyson's head, and the poor cyclops didn't understand as he tried to swat it away.

Tantalus began to roar with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"

Everyone laughed except for Percy, Annabeth, and a few others including Clarisse, Silena, and Charlie. Thea quickly got the Hermes cabin to stop, grabbing Travis by the collar until his eyes went as wide as tiny planets. Because, dammit, Tyson was a cyclops, but it made her sick to her stomach to see everyone laugh at him like he wasn't there--and worse, for him to not understand they were laughing at him.

Suddenly, even though Tyson would probably grow up to try and kill her, Thea still wanted to protect him from everyone's harsh words. He didn't deserve it.

**Author's Note:**

> this is cross-posted from wattpad, just in case it gets deleted on there! my username is euphoricsenses, i update more often there, & have author's notes and inside things + other fandoms! go check it out


End file.
